Playing with Numb3rs
by junodog
Summary: Don Eppes is investigating a crime when he finds a strange boy... Summary sucks, title sucks, crossover Fullmetal Alchemist and Numb3rs, mangabased, cheesecake.
1. Chapter 1

AHA ANOTHER CROSSOVER! WOOHOO! XD Yeah, so, this is me doing another crossover, and it's based on the manga, but to make things interesting, I decided to base it off of my story I'm Sorry. Just for the drama P

And I'M VERY, VERY SORRY if the Numb3rs people seem OOC, because I've been lacking cable for almost a year now and the only episode of Numb3rs I have is Sniper Zero. And on that note, the setting is in the first season of Numb3rs and don't forget, this is from the Fullmetal Alchemist MANGA. I've noticed that if I don't clarify that some people forget/don't realize that the manga is completely different from the anime, so for those of you who know more about the manga (which is WAY better) then you didn't really need to read this. HA I WASTED YOUR TIME!

Um… on to the story.

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It was a busy day at the FBI headquarters in Los Angeles. The phones rang constantly as the various agents were trying their best to investigate the most recent string of murders in the city. The only worthwhile call included a vague witness description of the murderer, the best lead they had gotten since the first death.

Don Eppes thought about the description as he drove to the scene of the latest crime. A male with blonde hair and blue eyes, around five feet two inches, wearing red and black clothing. He killed his victims by strangling them, but only after taking away any dignity they had. The latest woman he had killed had been found washed up on the beach.

He got out of the car and walked to the roped off section of the beach. He ducked under the yellow tape and looked at the woman. She had brown hair, a characteristic she shared with the rest of the victims.

He looked out at the ocean, hoping to see a boat that the woman could have been pushed off of. Instead he saw something completely different, but just as interesting. Something red was underwater about thirty yards away from where they stood. He gestured to one of his coworkers and ran over to investigate. What they found there was so strange that it couldn't have been a coincidence.

Don ran into the water and grabbed the boy's left arm, dragging him out of the water. He quickly checked to see if there was a pulse. There was, but it was very weak. Don pulled out his phone and called for medical assistance as his buddy performed CPR. Once the boy was breathing again, Don noticed a very strange look on his coworker's face.

"Something wrong?"

"Look at this," the man replied, pulling off the boy's red coat to reveal a metal hand. A quick check showed that the metal went all the way to the boy's shoulder.

"What is this?" Don asked.

"Looks like a prosthetic, but I've never heard of anyone having a completely metal arm like this one."

They stopped their conversation as the boy coughed up not just saltwater, but a large amount of blood. Don checked the boy's pulse again. It was still weak. He stood up and looked impatiently at the nearby parking lot.

"That ambulance had better arrive soon, otherwise we're going to lose the only suspect we have."

---------------------

The EMTs did their jobs quickly, getting the boy to a somewhat stable condition within minutes of arriving. All of them were as surprised as Don was about the boy's body. Not only were his arm and leg metal prosthetics, but several of his ribs had been broken, and one of the broken bones had torn something in the boy's chest, causing internal bleeding. They managed to stop the blood loss by performing some emergency surgery on the boy at the hospital, but he was unconscious, and they guessed he would be for several days.

Don came in the second day after finding the boy. He entered the boy's room and saw a doctor doing some tests on the boy. The doctor noticed him and straightened.

"How's he doing?" Don asked, gesturing to the boy, whose face was covered by an oxygen mask.

"He's probably going to be like this for a day or two more than what I originally told you. As for your case, I don't think you can count him as a suspect."

Don nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right, but we can't be sure. Is there anything other than his arm and leg that shows that he isn't the killer?"

"Yes, there is. His eyes are a different color from that of the killer, and the various wounds on his body couldn't have been self-inflicted. Not even jumping or being pushed off a boat could cause these."

"So what, someone attacked him?"

"Yes."

Don looked at the boy again. "So you're saying that this kid's too weak to be the killer?"

"That's right."

Don shrugged. "For this kid's sake, I hope you're right." He took a final look at the almost peaceful face and left.

----------------

He came back three days later with Terry. According to the doctor, the boy was due to wake up at any time, and Don wanted to be there when he did. He sat in the boy's room for a while, carefully observing the boy whose facial expressions had shifted from peaceful to troubled in his sleep.

When he was about ready to take a break, Don saw some movement out of the corner of his eye. He stood up and watched as the boy weakly opened his eyes. Don observed as the golden eyes inspected the room. The boy seemed rather confused.

After a while, the eyes rested on Don. The FBI agent could tell that the boy wanted to ask a lot of questions, but giving the kid too much information at once wasn't the best idea.

Just then, the doctor came into the room and saw that the boy was awake. Don took a step back as the doctor moved forward to do his duties.

"So you're awake. How are you feeling?" the doctor asked.

The boy closed his eyes again and let out a very quiet moan. That certainly answered the doctor's question.

"Don't push yourself right now. You're lucky to be alive," the doctor continued as he checked up on the boy and pulled off the oxygen mask. "Can you speak?"

"Yeah," the boy whispered.

"What's your name?"

"Ed… Edward Elric."

"All right, Edward, just relax for a while, okay? And try not to move. If you do it'll be very painful."

Edward nodded and looked at Don. Don knew in that instant that Edward wasn't a killer. He looked at the doctor, who nodded. Then he moved so that he was closer to Edward's face. "Hey, I'm Special Agent Don Eppes from the FBI, and this is Special Agent Terry Lake. We have some questions for you, but we can wait until we find your parents and notify them that you're here."

Edward shook his head. Don looked with confusion at the kid for a couple minutes before reacting. "You don't want us to contact your parents?"

Edward shook his head again. "I don't… I don't have parents."

Don paused for a moment before reacting. "Oh, sorry. Is there someone who acts as your guardian?"

"No, not really."

Don was confused for a moment before he realized that talking to a kid just after he woke up wasn't the best idea. He turned to the door and began to walk out. "I'll be back in a couple of days, okay?"

The boy just watched silently as Don and Terry left the room.

"So, what do you think?" Terry asked.

Don looked back at Edward's room. "I think this is getting complicated."

"How so?"

"Well, we've got a kid who was found very close to the latest victim. His physical characteristics match the description we got almost perfectly except for his arm and leg-"

"And his eyes, but then again, the suspect could have been wearing contacts."

"Right. And when he shows up and we take him to the hospital, the murders stop."

"So you think this is our guy?"

Don opened the front door of his car and sat in the driver's seat. "I do, but at the same time I don't. According to our witness, the killer doesn't have any prosthetic limbs or anything unusual about his body like this kid does. And besides, if he really had killed those women, wouldn't he have had a different reaction when he found out who we were?"

"Yeah, I guess he would have, although he _did_ just wake up."

"Yeah, and we know his name now, so we can get to work on finding out just who he is."

"I've never heard of any Elrics before, though."

Don closed the door and started the car. "Well, if it's not a common last name, we'll have an easier time finding any relatives this kid has."

---------------

Charlie heard a door slam and decided that his brother was paying a visit. He pulled out the papers he had been working on for Don and walked over to the front entrance to see how his brother was doing.

"Hey, Don, what's up?" he asked casually.

Don took off his coat with a deep sigh. "This case is driving me insane. I've been trying to find this kid's family but…"

"But what?"

"This kid definitely doesn't live in LA. Or anywhere within a hundred miles of here. We looked for medical records, school records, everything. We can't find anything in the area."

"Then where's he from?"

"I don't know. We're going to try a larger search, but it'll probably take a while. I'm going to talk to him today and see if he can tell us where he's from. I just came by to see how you're doing with that equation."

"I'm working on it. It's pretty close now."

Don got a water bottle and took a drink from it. "Great, thanks, Charlie."

"Yeah, no problem," Charlie replied as Don went back to the door. Don was almost outside before he turned back.

"Before I forget, have you ever heard of something called automail? I guess that's what Edward's calling his arm and leg."

"No, I haven't ever heard of something like that."

"Okay, thanks."

Charlie thought about it for a moment. "Maybe he's part of an experiment or something."

"No, if he were we wouldn't have custody over him, unless it's a secret organization, and even then, they wouldn't have let him go that easily."

"Yeah, I was just throwing it out there."

Don nodded and closed the door. Charlie watched as Don walked to his car and drove off.

-----------------

Before going into Ed's room, Don stopped to talk with the doctor in charge of the mysterious boy. The report the doctor gave was a positive one.

"He's recovering more quickly than I thought he would. He sleeps more than what I would consider normal for a boy his age, but considering his injuries, it's not a bad thing."

"Has he said anything about where he came from?"

"No, but I haven't asked him. I thought it would be better if he healed some before answering those kinds of questions."

"Is he awake right now?"

"Yes, you can talk to him if you want."

Don was about to enter the room when the doctor got his attention. "Before you talk to him, I thought I should warn you. He's a little… jumpy when it comes to technology. I've had to explain how just about everything in his room works. Even the TV."

"The TV? Why would he ask about that?"

The doctor shrugged. "He said he'd never seen one before."

Don opened the door. "Well, I guess we'll just have to see what's up." He entered the room and looked at the bed. Edward was sitting on it with his legs crossed. He was examining his right hand. Don sat down next to the teenager and looked at his hand.

"Something wrong?"

Ed looked up at Don and let go of his hand. "Not really, it's just not working as well as it usually does."

"That's probably because you were underwater for who knows how long."

"Yeah, probably."

Don pulled out a notebook and a pen. "Is it all right if I call you Ed?"

"Yeah, that's fine with me."

"Okay, Ed, I have some questions for you."

"Okay."

Don started with the most important questions, the ones that connected Ed to the case he'd been working on. "All right, first question. Have you seen any of these women?" he asked, holding out a page of photos to Ed. Ed looked at the page for a while before handing the paper back to Don.

"No, none of them look familiar."

"Okay, then. How did you end up in the ocean?"

Ed thought about it for a while. "That's where you found me, right?"

"Yeah, you were drifting in on the tide."

Ed frowned. Don could tell he was thinking hard about it. After a while, he shook his head. "I don't remember."

"You don't remember anything?"

"No. The last thing I remember before waking up was riding a train with my little brother, and then everything after that is hazy. I don't even remember being anywhere near the ocean."

"So you don't remember how you got injured?"

Ed shook his head. "Sorry, I don't know."

"Don't worry about it. If you don't remember, then you don't remember. All right, can you tell me where you're from?"

"Like my hometown?"

"Yeah."

Ed nodded. "Resembool."

"Where's that?"

"It's a really small town in the east, kind of near East City, and… what?"

"East City?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, next question. Are you from America?"

"America?"

"Yeah, this country, the United States of America? USA?"

Ed still seemed confused, but he simply shook his head. "No, I'm from Amestris."

"Is that a country?"

"What? Yeah, of course it is. You haven't heard of it?"

Don looked at the boy for another minute. "No, I haven't. Um, I'll be right back."

Don left Ed in his room for a moment while he went to talk to the doctor. Something was wrong with the situation.

He found the doctor talking to a woman at the front desk. He turned when he saw Don standing next to him.

"Is something wrong?" he asked with concern.

"I think there might be. If someone speaks perfect English but they've never heard of America and claim to be from a country that doesn't exist, and you know he's not trying to lie, what would you say?"

"I'd say you need to get him to a psychologist. I didn't see any signs of head injury when you brought him in, but there's a very good chance he's suffering from some kind of trauma."

Don nodded. "Is there someone you'd recommend?"

The doctor nodded. "I know one who's pretty good with cases like this." The doctor went behind the counter and began looking something up. After a while, he gave Don a card. "As soon as Edward is ready to leave the hospital, you should take him there."

Don took the card and thanked the doctor before going back into Ed's room. Ed was staring at the ceiling, a blank look on his face. Don sat back down next to Ed and went back to asking questions.

"Okay, we'll go back to that issue later. For now, can you just tell me more about your family?"

"My family? What do you want to know?"

"Just… anything that'll help us find them so you don't have to stay in FBI custody."

"FBI?"

"Yeah, the Federal Bureau of Investigations. We're… like policemen, but we deal with bigger cases."

Ed nodded. "I get it. Well, like I said earlier, I don't have much family left other than my brother Alphonse. Our mom died when we were very young, and our dad left a while before that. We haven't heard from him since."

"What's your father's name?"

"Von Hohenheim. My last name comes from my mother, Trisha Elric. There isn't much other than that."

"Is there anything that can help us in finding your father?"

Ed scowled. "I don't see why you'd want to find him, but if you want to know…"

"What, do you not like him?"

"No, not after he ditched us like that. I doubt he wants anything to do with his family anymore."

"So… I take it you'd rather not have him be your guardian?"

"No. My brother and I have been on our own for about four years now. Before that, it was our friend's grandmother who took care of us."

"Why isn't she taking care of you anymore?"

Ed shrugged. "We've been traveling too much to really need her help. Besides, I work for the military of my country, so that's how I live now."

"Wait a minute. Your military lets fifteen-year-olds join?"

"Actually, I was twelve when I started."

"Twelve? Isn't that against child labor laws?"

Ed shrugged. "I guess not. Besides, I'm not a normal soldier. I work as an alchemist."

Don made up his mind at that moment. The kid was definitely not sane. He decided to play along. "Alchemy, huh?"

Ed nodded. "I'm guessing you don't know any alchemists?"

"No, can't say that I do. In fact, nobody around here does. It's been given up as something that's impossible to do."

"Impossible?"

"Yeah. I'm guessing you can use it, right?"

Ed nodded. "I can show you if you want."

Don didn't know what to say. He decided to humor Ed. "Okay, let's see it."

Ed looked at the door before bringing his hands together and placing them on the bed. That's when Don got the biggest surprise of his life. Something was forming underneath Ed's hands. There was a flash of light, and when Ed lifted his hands, Don saw a small cloth horse sticking out of the bed. Then he saw Ed smirking.

"Okay, there's about five million things I could say to completely deny the existence of what just happened, but I don't think I'll be able to believe any of them," Don said after a while of staring numbly at the horse.

"What do you mean by that?" Ed asked.

Don shook his head. "Listen, whatever you do, don't tell anyone you can do this. Don't show anyone. If anyone finds out about this, then there's a good chance that some secret branch of the government will come after you and make it so that you'll never have any freedom again."

"What, is alchemy really that bad?"

"Not bad, it's just something that a lot of people will want to use."

"I get it. I won't use it."

"Okay, good." Something told Don that his previous thoughts on the boy were off and that Ed was telling the truth, but he couldn't bring himself to believe that. Besides, he'd already talked with the doctor about this, so if he didn't follow through with his previous plan, he would have troubles later.

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Ah, yes, fanfic. Some more notes: I realize that some things might seem like plotholes, but I _did_ do research, and like I said before, I only have Sniper Zero to watch and uh… Yeah, I don't really have much time to spend on the research end of things, so if there's something that's blatantly wrong, just tell me via PM or something and I'll fix it. )

Oh yes, I did research (in other words typed into Dogpile white pages) the name Elric, and it ain't in the US. There are other spellings of it, but not the one we all know and love, so I think we're safe. And besides, there aren't any Trisha Elrics out there…


	2. Chapter 2

Ed was bored out of his mind. Not to mention confused and aggravated. Nobody knew where he was from, and he didn't know anything about where he was. And they wouldn't even let him out of his room. There was someone from the FBI guarding his door. Ed hadn't paid much attention when he had introduced himself, but he remembered the man saying his name was David Sinclair.

He realized he could have amused himself by watching TV, but some part of him didn't want to be caught assimilating to the technology of wherever he was. He wanted to read a book he'd gotten with his brother, but then he realized he didn't have any of his belongings other than what he'd been wearing.

He thought about his clothes for a while and began to look through them, seeing what all he had. To his relief, his watch was still attached to his belt. He took it off and sat back down, looking at the watch for a while.

Not knowing what else to do, he began flicking the watch open and closed. After a while, he looked more closely at it and was rather surprised. The watch was still working.

"That's interesting," Ed muttered as he closed it again.

"What is?" asked the man who had been standing out in the hallway for the past few hours. Ed started. He hadn't realized that Sinclair was there.

Ed pointed at the watch. "This is still working. I thought for sure it wouldn't after what happened."

"Yeah, we were wondering about that. It isn't waterproof, is it?"

Ed shook his head. "I don't see why it would be. I doubt the people who made it thought I'd be spending any time underwater."

Sinclair laughed and sat down. Ed went back to playing with his watch. He wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, especially not someone from the government of a country he'd never heard of. The room was quiet for a while.

"So… how did you get it?"

There it was. Another question Ed couldn't answer without talking about his country and making himself appear even more insane. He thought about the question for a while before deciding not to answer.

"Okay, never mind. How about the date that's carved in there?"

Ed paused. "It's just a date that's important to me."

"Why is it important?"

Ed was quiet for a long time as he thought about how to answer without saying too much. "It's a reminder."

"Of what?"

"So that I don't forget the biggest mistake I've ever made."

It was quiet for a while longer. Then Sinclair spoke up again. "I guess you don't want to talk about it."

Ed shook his head. "Not really."

The room was quiet again. Then Ed jumped as Sinclair's cell phone went off. As soon as he realized what it was, he sighed. He still wasn't used to the technology in this place.

As the FBI dude went out of the room to talk on his happy little phone, Ed went back to staring at the ceiling. He had a feeling that whoever it was on the phone was asking about him. Ever since arriving at this place, Ed had the feeling that he was caught up in more than just a murder case.

---------------

"What's up, Don?"

"We have another victim. I just got done at the crime scene."

Sinclair smiled, even though he knew Don couldn't see it. "So this kid isn't responsible for the murders?"

"He definitely has an alibi for this one, but someone called with a claim that she saw Ed at one of the other crime scenes. Fake limbs and all."

"So you're thinking he's an accomplice?"

"I don't think he is, but he's definitely involved somehow. Considering how we found him, I'd say he's a victim."

"Wait a second. If he's a victim, then why are his injuries different from the rest?"

"I've thought about that. We also have to consider the fact that he isn't the same as the other victims in a lot of ways. And then we add in that weird story he's been giving us… There's got to be something we're missing, but what?" Don was quiet for a while. "Maybe we'll figure this out when we take Ed to that psychologist."

"Yeah, about that, I think he's hiding something. It might not have anything to do with the case, but it's definitely suspicious."

"Right. We'll see how things go tomorrow."

Sinclair hung up and went back to the room. A nurse had brought food in while he was talking on the phone, and Ed had already eaten. Only one thing remained on the tray, and Ed was avoiding its gaze so much that Sinclair had to comment.

"What, you're not going to drink your milk?"

Ed responded with a death glare. Sinclair laughed to himself and sat down again.

"You know, milk's good for you."

"I don't care."

"It helps you grow."

"Are you implying that I'm short?" Ed growled dangerously.

"No, not at all. I'm just thinking about your ribs. If you drank more milk they wouldn't have broken so easily."

"If someone wanted me dead, I don't see how it would matter how easy it to break my bones."

"Yeah, good point. You- wait a second, how did you know about that?"

Ed folded his arms over his chest. "Why else would you be watching me if I'm not a suspect or whatever? I'm not stupid."

"Hey, nobody said you were. I'm just surprised you figured it out so quickly. You're pretty sharp."

Ed didn't reply to the compliment. He grabbed his watch and started fiddling with it, anything to keep himself busy. Once he was alone in the room, he sighed. There were going to be a lot of awkward silences while Ed was here.

----------------

Ed woke up very early the next morning. He sat up, looked around, remembered that he was going to be leaving the hospital later that day, and lay back down. He was asleep within minutes.

When he awoke, it was to someone gently shaking him awake. Ed opened one eye and saw that it was a nurse. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and sat up.

"Morning. We have one last checkup scheduled for you, and then you're free to go."

Ed raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, so you'll be going with Mr. Eppes to a psychologist. But hey, at least you won't be stuck in the hospital anymore, right?"

Ed smiled weakly as he did what he was told. He sat as still as he could as she checked his chest, occasionally putting more pressure than what was needed on his ribs. She stopped when she noticed him wince.

"All right, everything seems to be in order. If you can, you should come back in two weeks, just so we can make sure everything's healing the right way."

Ed nodded. "Thanks." He took his clothes and changed as the nurse left. Before he left the room, he grabbed his watch from the nightstand and looked inside again. "Don't worry, Al, I'll find you. At least, if you don't find me first." With that, Ed closed the watch and reattached it to his belt before walking out of the room.

Don was waiting for him just outside the door. Ed followed him through the hospital to the parking lot, and he got another shock when he saw just how different the cars were. Somehow, Ed managed to hide his surprise as they walked to Don's car.

As Don drove, he saw the strangest expression on Ed's face. It was a combination that was rare, a mix of boredom and fascination. He could understand the fascination, since Ed's mind was accustomed to early 20th century technology, but he didn't understand why Ed was bored.

After a while, Ed stopped staring out the window. "What exactly is this meeting about?" he asked.

"It's to check the status of your mental health and see if there are any problems that came from what you went through."

"So in other words you're seeing if I'm crazy."

They came to a stoplight. Don looked over at Ed as he waited for the light to change. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"Is it because I'm from somewhere that doesn't seem to exist?"

"Yep."

"The light's green."

Don started and looked up. Indeed, the light had changed, and he began driving again. "We're also going to see if there's any hope of you remembering what happened," he said as he pulled into a parking lot. He parked the car and turned it off before turning to Ed. "Listen, don't say anything about alchemy, okay?"

"That might be hard," Ed replied.

"Why?"

"It's been a really big part of my life for… most of my life, and I mean it's _really_ something…" Ed trailed off. "A lot of things have happened to me because of it." As Ed said this, he unconsciously gripped his right arm. Fortunately, he noticed what he was doing fairly quickly and let go, but not before Don noticed.

"Did you lose your arm because of it?"

"Something like that."

Don looked at the clock in the car and sighed. "Okay, just… do your best. The only reason I'm telling you not to say anything is because it might make you look more insane than everyone thinks you already are."

Ed nodded and got out of the car. They walked quietly through the streets to an office. Ed sat quietly on one of the couches as Don talked to the receptionist. After a while, a door opened, and a friendly-looking man came out. The man introduced himself as Dr. Russo and led Ed into another room.

----------------

"All right, Edward, let's begin."

"Okay."

Dr. Russo pulled out a map and placed it on the table in front of Ed. "Do you see your home anywhere on this?"

Ed observed the map for a while, trying to picture the shape of the land around Amestris. After a while, he gave up. "No."

"Is there anything that resembles the land around your country?"

"No."

"Check again. There might be a sea or something that gives it away."

"There isn't."

The doctor wrote something down on a clipboard and put the map away. "All right. How well do you remember your country?"

"Well enough to know that it isn't a figment of my imagination."

"And how well is that?"

Ed sighed. "I've traveled around a lot. I've been to the major cities several times. I've met people from all over."

Dr. Russo took some more notes and put down his clipboard. "Are there any incidents in your childhood that you want to forget?"

Ed's first thought was the failed human transmutation, but then he remembered what Don had said. He nodded anyway. There were plenty of things he wanted to forget.

"Can you tell me what they are?"

_Dammit, this guy's way too blunt._ Ed took a deep breath. "Why do you need to know?"

"Edward, we're trying to understand how you're feeling at the moment. If you can't share these events, then how do you expect us to help you?"

"I don't need your help," Ed snarled.

"You may not think you do, but consider what you've been through in the past few days. And besides, you're missing a part of your memory. We're trying to help you, Edward. You don't need to lash out at us."

Ed glared at the man. "Who said I'm lashing out?"

Dr. Russo started. "That's what you were about to do, wasn't it?"

"No. I just don't see why I have to be here."

"Do you realize just how rare it is for someone to have a case like yours?"

"No, because I didn't think there was anything wrong with me."

"We aren't saying there's anything wrong with you, but do you understand the situation you're in?"

"Yeah, I understand it! I just got taken from my home and now I'm in some country where everyone thinks I'm crazy just because I'm not from around here!"

"Edward, sit down."

Ed sat down and glared at Russo. The doctor smiled and stood up.

"There's nothing wrong with what you're feeling. We're just trying to know more about you, so that we can return you to your home after this mess is sorted out."

"What do you want to know? How my brother and I lost everything in a single night and are still trying to recover? How we met someone so sick that he was willing to use his four-year-old daughter in an experiment? How someone almost killed us because we were Amestrian? Do you really need to know every single detail of my life?"

"Edward, calm down."

Ed continued, tears in his eyes. "I've seen hell! I've seen people die right before my eyes! I've put everything I have into helping the only family I have left! And you're saying that everything I've been through is fake?"

"No."

"Wha…?"

"Edward, sit down. I'll explain the situation to you, so be patient for a moment, okay?"

Ed sat down, still glaring at the doctor. "Okay, go right ahead."

"The fact that you remember events and seem to be able to remember specific details shows that you still remember the majority of your life."

"Then why-"

"Please don't interrupt. I've come to the conclusion that someone put this country into your mind. They didn't want you to do anything they didn't want you to do, so they convinced you that you're from a country that doesn't exist and promised you they'd help you return there."

"So you're saying I was brainwashed."

"It's simply a theory, but it fits the circumstances the best at the moment."

"Great."

The doctor stood up. "Well, that's it for today. I'm going to talk to Mr. Eppes, so wait here for a while. I'll see you in a few days."

"Eh?"

"We're going to be continuing these meetings until you're back to your normal self."

Ed was about to give the man a piece of his mind when the door shut, leaving him alone in the room.

------------------

Don didn't need super-awesome investigative skills to see that Ed was pissed. Nor did he need averagely awesome investigative skills. All he needed was one glance into the teenager's eyes. Those eyes said it all. And to Don, they were saying, "Why the hell am I here?"

Despite his position, he began to feel bad for Ed. Especially after his first encounter with Dr. Russo. Don sighed as he remembered what the doctor had said.

"_We made a small amount of progress today, but it'll be a while before he lets go of his 'world.' The only thing I can suggest for whoever's going to take care of him is to watch him. Expose him to technology, to history, things he supposedly doesn't know about. If he's really convinced that he isn't from anywhere in this world, he'll show it."_

"_And what about his memory?"_

"_He probably lost it from shock. If that's the case, then there are ways to regain it, but he'll have to want it."_

"_I don't think that's a problem. He's gotten frustrated several times because he doesn't remember. Anyway, I'll bring him in next week. See you then."_

He parked the car and got out. Ed followed silently as they entered the building. He gave Ed an ID and brought him to a room with a one-way window (or whatever they're called) and told him to wait there. Then he left and met up with Terry and David and the woman who had claimed she had seen Ed before.

The woman looked at Ed for several minutes before speaking. "That's definitely him."

"Do you remember what he was doing when you saw him?"

"He… was arguing with someone. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but he seemed scared, as if he didn't want whoever he was arguing with to do something. If that makes sense."

"It makes sense. Could you see who he was arguing with?"

"Yes, but his face was hidden. He had a deep voice, though, and he was about a foot taller than that kid."

"What did they do afterwards?"

"The man showed him something, and they left, but I don't think he wanted to follow the man."

"You didn't get to see what the man was holding, did you?"

"No, I didn't have the best view, and the guy was in the shadows."

"Okay, thanks for your help. We'll call if there's anything else."

Once the woman had left, Terry looked at Ed through the glass. "So I guess he's definitely involved now, but just what side is he on?"

"I guess we'll just have to wait until he can tell us himself," Don replied.

"Speaking of which, how'd it go today?"

Don pulled out Russo's report and looked it over again. "Well, Ed's definitely not happy. As for him hiding something, he did mention several incidents that are definitely things he wouldn't want to go into. Here, take a look." Don handed the report to Sinclair and waited as his colleague read through it.

"He said he lost everything in a single night? What did he mean by that?"

"I don't know, but there's a very good chance it has something to do with his arm and leg. But for some reason, I doubt any of this has anything to do with our case." Don took back the report and flipped to the back page of it. "Anyway, Russo said that it's possible to get him to remember, but from what he said, it'll be difficult."

"And what about that other issue? With his different country and everything?"

"He said to expose him to anything he wouldn't find in his 'world' and see how he reacts."

"So, just take him to Radio Shack or something. There's plenty there he won't know about."

"That might be a little overwhelming."

"Then what about a museum? From what we know about his personality, he seems like he'd enjoy learning about history."

Don shrugged. "We'll just have to talk to whoever's taking care of him from here on about it."

Terry and David exchanged glances. "Actually, we don't have anyone who can take him right now. Everyone we asked is too busy with their own problems."

"Everyone?"

"That's what I said. Anyone we haven't asked wouldn't be capable of watching him in case he's attacked."

"So what, you want me to take care of him?"

Terry smiled. "Well, he seems to like you the best out of all of us."

"True." Don looked back at Ed, who had pulled his watch out again. "Yeah, that might be a good idea."

"Good luck."

----------------

Ed sighed as he sat in the small room. He glanced at the mirror to his right and noted that he looked tired. Then again, considering the events of the day, he wasn't surprised. He suppressed a yawn as he waited for someone to tell him why he was sitting all alone in some room with a mirror. Then he remembered a select incident with Colonel Mustang.

Ed had been following the Colonel around on a tour of East City headquarters when they came to the crime division. Mustang had been particularly proud of a rather new addition to the area: a room with a mirror that allowed people on the other side to see through it with perfect clarity. _"This is pretty new, Fullmetal. You're one of the first to see it."_

_So, they're watching me?_ Ed thought. _Or is someone identifying me as a suspect?_

Just then, the door opened, and Terry Lake walked in. She sat down across from Ed with a notepad in her hands.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

Ed shrugged. He didn't really know how he was doing. But he did want to know what sort of situation he was in, so he asked.

"We're trying to find the person who attacked you. Someone saw you arguing with someone near one of the crime scenes. From what she said, it sounded like he was threatening you. Do you know anyone who could have that kind of power over you?"

Ed thought about it for a while. True, there were several people who had the ability to control him, but he knew for a fact that none of them would go around murdering brown haired women. Envy might, but then again, that was Envy. He shook his head. "No, I can't think of anyone."

"Is there something that people could easily threaten you with? Something other than a weapon?"

Ed thought back to a certain threat from Wrath. "Yes."

"What is it?"

"When someone threatens the safety of someone I care about."

Terry understood immediately. "Like a hostage situation?"

Ed nodded.

"Okay." Terry went to the door and let someone in. The person sat next to Terry, across from Ed, and set a blank piece of paper on the table "This is a sketch artist, Ed. He's good at drawing people when you describe what they look like. Can you give us a physical description of your brother? Just so that we know what to look for?"

Ed nodded again. He thought about his brother, wondering where to begin. Would it be better to start with the Al he remembered from his childhood, or the Al he had seen when arriving at the doors to escape from that sea of blood. He decided to go with the former, knowing that talking about a starved body would put suspicion on the two of them, and he felt like there was enough he had to deal with at the moment. He finished by talking about the armor, stating that he hadn't seen Al without it for several years. Ed looked at the sketches. They were amazingly accurate in portraying the face Ed hadn't seen in over four years.

Once the artist had left, Terry looked at the drawings with some confusion in her eyes. "Ed, isn't your brother fourteen?"

"Yeah."

"This looks like a ten-year-old."

"Yeah."

"Why is that?"

Ed paused, trying to think of a good way to tell the truth without talking about alchemy. "It's because I haven't seen him… or more accurately, seen his face… for four years."

"But hasn't he been with you all that time?"

"Yeah, but he never takes off his armor."

"Why not?"

"It's… complicated."

Terry saw that Ed wasn't going to say anything more about it and put the drawings away. "Okay. We'll talk about this after we find him. Right now, though, you need to focus on other things. And just so you know, you're going to be staying with Don until we get this settled out."

Ed didn't know if he could argue or if he even wanted to argue against this turn of events, so he merely said, "Okay."

-------------

Note: I have no idea when those glass window one-way thingies were invented, and CLEARLY I don't know what they're officially called, so if I'm way off… IT'S CALLED ARTISTIC LICENSE! DEAL WITH IT! XD


	3. Chapter 3

After a while, Don finished his work and began the task of taking care of Ed. He wasn't looking forward to doing so, since Ed had already proven that he was very difficult to handle, so he was very slow as he walked with the teen to his car.

They sat in silence in the vehicle for several minutes before Don started it up. "Do you mind if we stop somewhere beforehand? There are some things I need to get on the way to my place."

Ed shrugged as Don pulled out of his parking space. After driving for a while, Don had a question for Ed. "Are you always this quiet, or did you just run out of energy?"

"I just don't have anything to say," Ed replied.

"How about the reason your brother hasn't let you see his face for four years?"

"That? It has a lot to do with alchemy."

"You couldn't come up with a story that would have been believable?"

"Considering just what that armor has inside… no, there's no way to explain it without bringing up alchemy."

Don pulled into a parking spot in front of a large office supply store. "What exactly is inside, Ed?"

Don could see pain in Ed's eyes. Part of him wished he hadn't brought it up, but something told him it was important; important enough for him to know. He waited for Ed to respond.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, come on. You really think that we can just ignore the fact that your brother's never shown his face in four years and wears a suit of armor around everywhere? Especially when you're involved in something big and when there's a good chance your brother's involved too?" Don paused. "If it's really too hard for you to say, then fine, but this is a murder case. We have to investigate anyone suspicious, and if that means your brother, then-"

"Yeah, I get it, I've dealt with this before," Ed snapped. "I'm fine with saying what the deal is with Al, I just don't feel like going into _why_ he's that way."

"You don't have to."

Ed was silent for a good minute before he brought his gaze up and met Don's. "There's nothing inside that armor. It's empty. The only thing keeping Al in it is a seal I drew to connect his soul. With alchemy." Ed turned away and began staring intently at the dashboard. "I know it's hard to believe, but I'm telling the truth. I gave my arm up so that Al wouldn't disappear forever."

Don stared at Ed for a while. "Yeah, that is hard to believe," he said as he opened his car door. "But then again, that's the same thing I thought about alchemy." He got out of the car and began walking to the store.

-----------------

Ed looked around in awe at the gigantic store they had come to. If he hadn't been trying to prove his sanity, he would have gone into little-kid-in-a-playground mode, there was so much to see. But instead, he walked quietly behind Don, who seemed to know exactly where he was going.

"Here, hold this," Don said, handing Ed a package of paper. Ed took it, not really paying attention to what he was holding. He was more interested in the massive amounts of things he'd never seen. Some of it was recognizable, such as the different kinds of pens and pencils, and the telephones in the technology section, but the rest of the technology was harder to comprehend. He stared at something that had a screen resembling a TV that he knew _wasn't_ a TV. He decided to ask Don about it.

Needless to say, Don was rather surprised. "That's a computer."

"What does it do?"

"It uh… stores information and… well, there's a lot it can do. I'll show you when we get to my place."

"What, you don't know how to explain it?"

"Yeah, to be honest… no. It's something I've gotten used to being around, so of course it's hard to explain everything."

"So you use it but you don't know how it works?" Part of Ed enjoyed the irritated look on Don's face.

"Hey, I know how it works, just not the exact details. Do you know how a phone works?"

"No, not exactly…"

"Then you can't give me a hard time about it."

"Damn…"

By the time Don was ready to leave, Ed had managed to get used to where he was, to a certain extent. The size of the place still amazed him. Don seemed to notice this as he paid for everything.

"Do you not go to cities that often?"

"Hey, I go to cities a lot. They're just not like this."

"What, they aren't big?"

"No, they just don't have huge stores that sell fifty versions of the same thing."

Don didn't have a comeback. He just took the bags and headed for the door. Ed laughed to himself for some unknown reason. Then he yawned. He looked up. The sun was about to set.

--------------

"Well, it's not really meant for two people, and I didn't know you were coming until today, so you'll have to sleep on the couch for a while until we figure out something better."

Ed looked around Don's apartment. "That's fine with me."

Don placed his bags down on the table and turned to Ed. "You're taking this pretty well. I thought you'd be mad."

"About what?"

"Meeting with Russo today, for one."

"Well, yeah, of course I'm pissed. Everything that's happened in my life turned out badly, but this has got to be the most aggravating. I hate it when people try to manipulate me. I know that's not what you'd call it, but that's what it feels like to me."

"We're just trying to help."

"I know. And that's why I'm trying not to make a big deal out of it." Ed smiled sheepishly as he continued. "And my brother would kill me if I didn't try to be grateful."

"You really want to see him again, don't you?"

Ed nodded. "I'd probably give up on my life if anything happened to him. He's the only family I have left."

"Yeah, you said that." Don started finding stuff for dinner. "But you know, I'd probably do the same thing."

"You have a brother?" Ed asked.

"Didn't I mention him?"

Ed shrugged. "I probably wasn't paying attention."

Don gave Ed a strange look. "Are you failing school?"

"No."

"That's surprising."

"Not really."

"What, do your teachers not require you to listen to what they're saying?"

"I dropped out."

"Oh. Why?"

"I had other things I needed to do. Besides, I'm good enough at alchemy that I can just use that to get a job or whatever. Whenever I finish what I'm doing now."

"You mean that military thing you mentioned."

"Yeah, that."

"They seriously let twelve-year-olds get into that kind of thing?"

"If you're good enough."

Don sat down at the table across from Ed. "How good do you have to be?"

"Hmm… A man I know can destroy a building this size just by snapping his fingers."

"Yeah, right."

"No, I've seen it. He has special gloves that create a spark when he snaps his fingers, and then he uses alchemy to mess with the elements in the air, and boom."

"So can you do that?"

"Not really, but I could probably figure it out."

"So, what about the whole turning lead into gold thing? That's about the only thing an average person around here would know about alchemy."

"I could do that, but it's been banned." Ed paused. "Someone else I met got his license by creating something called a chimera; a creature made from two or more different animals into something you definitely couldn't get from breeding or anything like that. Only he managed to make one that could talk."

"How would he be able to do that?"

"By using his wife." Ed had meant to sound neutral while saying that, but he couldn't help the extreme bitterness that came with the memory. "He did the same thing with his daughter, too. I almost killed him after that."_ Think I'm making that up?_ Ed thought before he could help himself.

"What the… Why would he do something like that?"

"Because he was a sick freak."

Don paused. "Wait, is this the guy you mentioned to Russo?"

"That's right."

Don decided it was time to go back to the original subject. "What about you? Why did they let you in?"

"Because I'm a prodigy." Ed cringed after he said that. It sounded a little too sarcastic.

"And why is that?"

"I got it from my father. That and… You know the basics of alchemy, right? You draw a circle and put your hands on it and all that…"

"Yeah, I know that much."

"I don't need to draw a circle."

"Why not?"

"Because…" Ed rushed to try to think of a convincing explanation, but nothing came. He sighed. "Because of something I did when I was younger."

"And…?"

"And what?"

"I don't get it."

Ed sighed. Of course nobody on this world would get it. "There's this place… I don't know what exactly it is, but it can only be reached under certain circumstances… and if you pay a passage fee. Anyway, it's… almost like another dimension, and if you go there, you gain something called 'true knowledge.' That's why I don't have to use a circle." Ed shrank back in his chair as he waited for the inevitable question that would follow.

"What kind of circumstances? And what do you mean by passage fee?"

"The passage fee… for me, the first time, it was my leg. And for Al, it was his entire body, which is why I had to put his soul into the armor."

"Then what about the circumstances?"

"That's… not really something I want to go into."

"Okay, then don't. I can deal with that."

"That's why I had so much trouble today. I can't give a reason for anything without sounding insane or going into something you told me not to talk about."

"Yeah, sorry. I didn't know it would be such a hassle. But this is definitely a difficult situation. You know that, right?"

Ed nodded. "But there's no way I can admit that what I've been saying isn't true."

"Then why would you speak our language so easily?"

"Maybe that's a coincidence. Like these two different places are connected somehow."

"What, like some alternate universe thing?"

"Yeah. It goes against everything I believe in, but there's probably an explanation somewhere…"

Don laughed. "Wow, you're like my brother."

"What? How so?"

"He'd be frantically trying to come up with a logical explanation for everything you've talked about."

"There is a logical explanation. Why do you think it's hard for someone my age to even know the basics of alchemy?"

"I don't know anything about alchemy."

"Oh, right. Well, it's like anything you study. If you don't know how to do something, then you can't do it. Like…"

"Like if you're missing a variable you can't solve an equation?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, you really are like my brother. Only difference is you specialize in different areas. And other personality differences. And he's a lot taller than you."

"I'M NOT LITTLE!"

Don practically fell out of his chair. "Whoa, sorry. I didn't realize you were so sensitive about it."

"I'm not sensitive about it. I'm not that small."

"Okay. Forget I said anything about it."

---------------

The rest of the night passed somewhat peacefully, and Ed fell asleep within minutes of lying down. Don checked to make sure Ed was asleep before he picked up the phone and called his brother.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Charlie, it's me."

"Is it about the case?"

"Yeah. Did adding Ed in help at all?"

There was a sound of shuffling papers on the other end of the line. "Um, no, actually it's throwing everything off. Well, not throwing it off," Charlie continued. "But it's something completely different."

"Different?"

"Yeah. At first it didn't fit the pattern, but then I tried something else, and it changed everything."

"So how does that affect our case?"

"…Do you have plans for tomorrow?"

"Just working on this case. I'll have Ed with me too."

"Come over here in the afternoon. I can show you what's going on then."

"Yeah, sure."

Don hung up and looked over at Ed. The alchemist was sleeping on his side, his head on his right arm. Don sighed and turned off the light. As he went into his room, he heard a quiet whimper. "Al…"

---------------

The next morning started off with rain. Don started off by getting ready for work, remembering halfway through about the boy on his couch. Ed was still sleeping. Don went over to him and waited for a moment before waking him up.

"Hey, it's time to get up."

Ed hid his head and muttered, "Go away, Al…" before remembering where he was. He sat up and yawned as Don continued his normal morning schedule. Don figured it would be good for Ed to actually be awake before he tried talking to him. However, after five minutes or so, Don realized it wasn't going to work. Ed seemed really out of it.

"Hey, do you drink coffee?"

Ed nodded. "Why?"

"You seem tired."

"That's because most people don't make me get up this early."

"Yeah, well, I can't leave you here, and I have to get to work, so…"

"What exactly am I supposed to be doing today, then?"

Don shrugged. "I don't know, but we can't leave you alone if someone's after you."

"Yeah, but how do you know for sure that someone's after me?"

"We don't, but we can't take any chances."

"Right."

Once Don arrived at work, he checked with the others to see where he could leave Ed for the day. Most of them said to have him stay in the waiting room. That way he'd have some entertainment and there would be people around to keep an eye on him. So he left Ed in the waiting room for the morning.

Ed wasn't too happy by the time Don was ready to head over to see Charlie. No matter how much the alchemist tried to hide it, Don could tell he had been bored out of his mind.

"Hey, would you want to stop by a book store or something so you aren't so bored next time?"

Ed shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

"Suit yourself. You're going to be here for a while, though."

Ed stared out the window at the houses passing by. "So your brother lives somewhere around here?"

"Yeah. With my dad."

"What does he do?"

"Who, my dad or my brother?"

"Your brother. I don't think you said anything about that."

"Oh, he's a professor at a university nearby."

_Professor…?_ Ed's first thoughts were that of a Don look-alike with a moustache and glasses, and the whole stereotypical teacher look. He bit his lip to keep from laughing.

Don noticed his strange behavior. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked with concern in his voice.

Ed instantly became serious. "Yeah."

There was a semi-awkward silence as they arrived and Don stopped the car. "Okay, we're here. This is more of a business trip, so don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"What, am I really that hard to deal with?" Ed asked, traces of irritation in his voice.

"No, it's just… yes. Yes it is."

"Because of alchemy?"

"Yeah." Don was about to ring the doorbell when Charlie opened the door. Ed's ideas of what he looked like were immediately thrown out the window.

----------------

"Hey, Don. Is this Ed?" Charlie asked, pointing at the small teenager standing beside Don.

Don nodded. "Yeah. Ed, this is Charlie. He's my brother."

Charlie stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah," Ed replied as he shook Charlie's hand. Then they went inside.

"So what exactly did you mean when you said the calculations changed?" Don asked as they sat around a table.

Ed listened quietly to the long explanation that came from this simple question. All of it was going over his head, and it seemed to be going over Don's head as well. He wondered just how exactly he was connected to all the numbers.

"…But there's still something missing," Charlie continued. "From how things look on here, there has to be some connection between Ed and the killer, like some trait that they share, but I don't know what that could be."

Ed's ears perked up, and he looked at Don, trying to see if Don was thinking the same thing. He was.

"You mean like a rare ability or something?" Don asked.

"Yeah, something along those lines."

Ed felt the eyes of both Don and Charlie on him. His mind raced to find something to say, but he couldn't think of anything. Thankfully, he didn't have to say anything, because Don spoke again. "So the reason Ed's involved is because of something he can do? Then why would the killer want to get rid of him?"

Charlie shrugged. "That's everything I know right there. But no matter the reason why he tried to kill Ed, there's a very good chance he'll come try to come after him again."

"Makes sense," Ed muttered before he could stop himself. Charlie gave him an inquiring glance, but Don just nodded.

"Yeah."

At that moment, Don got a call. He left the room to answer it, leaving Ed alone with Charlie.

"So what grade are you in?" Charlie asked.

"I'm not in school."

"Oh. Why not?"

Ed shrugged. "I've had other things to do that are more important."

"School's pretty important."

"Not where I'm from."

"Oh, right…"

Ed shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Not talking about alchemy was hard. "So… you're a teacher?"

"Yeah."

"For math?"

"Yep."

Ed was quiet for a minute. "What about science?"

"Not so much. Why, do you like science?"

Ed shrugged. "I guess you could say that."

"Which type?"

"…Biology."

"That's pretty vague."

"Yeah, I guess it is. I focused on the human body for a while."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"How come?"

"Eh?"

"That seems like a random thing for you to be interested in."

"Oh." Ed studied his hands for a while, trying to find a way to tell Charlie the real reason without going into alchemy. "Probably because my mom got sick and died when I was really young."

At that moment, Don came back into the room. He looked a little frazzled.

"They just found another body. Hey Charlie, would you mind if I left Ed here until I'm done? Someone's on their way to keep an eye on things."

"No, that's fine."

"Great, thanks."

Ed watched as Don left the building before repeating what he had heard. "Another one…?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Charlie replied. "This case has been one of the hardest to solve."

Ed stuck his hands in his pockets. "I wish I could remember…"

"You'll remember it."

"Yeah…"

It was quiet for a while before Charlie spoke again. "So are you still into that?"

"Not so much anymore. It turned out to be pretty useless."

"Oh well. Hey, I have a lot of work to do still, so you can go watch TV if you want. Or since Don said you weren't really into TV, um… what do you usually do in your free time?"

Ed shrugged. "Depends on where I am."

Charlie thought about it for a while before getting up. "Here, I have a book you might want to read."

And thus Ed spent the next several hours learning about American history.

----------------

Okay, so about Charlie's equation… I really don't have a clue about that, and unless I do extensive research, including finding someone who knows all about the type of math Charlie does, which is _very_ hard to do in a town with a population of 1500 in the middle of nowhere, it's kinda going to have to stay the way it is, and I am NOT going to ask my calc teacher, because then she'd become suspicious about my failing grades and what I do when I'm at home…

So yeah, if it doesn't seem like it should work, just… pretend it does, okay? Please? And let me know how I'm doing with keeping everyone in character! I need to be reassured that I don't suck! XD


	4. Chapter 4

Alan Eppes made it home just as Charlie was finishing up. Ed was still reading the book, but he lost interest as the older man came into the room. Charlie looked up and greeted his father in the usual fashion (whatever that may be).

"Hey Charlie. Who's this?" Alan replied, gesturing at Ed.

"Oh, this is the kid from that case Don's working on. Don had to leave in a hurry so he left him here. Ed, this is my dad."

Alan stuck his hand out to Ed. "Nice to meet you. I'm Alan Eppes."

"Nice to meet you."

"So, you two doing anything interesting at the moment? I see you finally got out that history book I got you."

"Oh, yeah. Ed didn't have anything to do, so I thought it'd be good for him to learn something about where he is."

"That's right. You aren't from around here, are you, Ed?"

Ed shook his head. "Nope."

Alan sat down across from Ed. "So, you two eat yet?"

Charlie finished writing something down and closed his notebook. "Nope."

"Nothing? Jeez, Charlie, it's nine thirty!"

"Really? It's that late?" Charlie looked up at the clock. "Wow, it is. I guess we didn't notice."

"How long is Ed staying here?"

"Just until Don gets back. He should be back soon."

---------------

At that moment, Charlie's cell phone rang, and he briefly looked at the caller before answering. "What's up, Don?"

"Hey, how's it going over there?" Don sounded exhausted.

"Fine, Ed spent the evening learning about American history, and I may have gotten closer to finding an answer. How about you?"

"Oh, man, it's chaos down here. I'm going to be here for at least another hour. Do you mind taking care of Ed until then? If not, I can have someone bring him up here…"

Charlie looked up at his father. "It's Don. He wants to know if we can keep Ed here for an hour or so."

"That's fine with me."

Charlie looked at Ed. Ed shrugged. "I'm fine with whatever."

Charlie went back to talking with Don. "Yeah, no problem."

Alan looked at Ed for a moment before turning to Charlie. "Tell him we can keep Ed here overnight if it's going to be that late before he can come over."

Charlie relayed the message to his brother, only to be rejected. "No, I can't do that. He's supposed to be in FBI custody at all times. I just left him because I couldn't take him to a crime scene."

"Okay, then we'll see you when you get here."

"Yeah, thanks."

Charlie hung up the phone and stretched. "Well, he's still coming over tonight."

"How's he doing?" Alan asked.

"He sounded tired."

"Well of course he'd be tired after all the work he's doing. Anyway, why don't you two eat? It's getting late."

------------------

Ed was quiet during the ride back to Don's apartment. But to Don, it didn't seem like the usual silence. For some reason, Ed had refused to look him in the eye since Don came to pick him up, and Don wanted to know why.

"Hey, is something wrong?" he asked as they drove.

"No."

"Then why haven't you said anything?"

Ed shrugged.

Don parked his car and they made their way inside. Once they were in the living room, Don put down the things he'd brought home from work and looked directly at Ed.

"Hey, don't feel bad that I had to make an extra trip for you. This is part of my job."

"I know. That's not the problem."

"Then what is?"

"I just feel like I'm getting in the way. I don't remember anything about what happened, and I feel bad that I'm not being as helpful as I could be. And what if my brother got dragged into this too? He could be in trouble and I can't do anything about it."

"Hey, it's natural for you to feel like that. And don't worry, I have tomorrow off, so we can check around to see how to get your memory back."

"You're working on your day off?"

"Well, it's not really a day off, but everyone thinks I need to spend a day away from the office. I'm just going to work at home tomorrow." Don yawned. "Anyway, I'm going to bed now. Need anything?"

Ed shook his head. "I'm fine."

"Okay, then. Good night."

--------------

It was a restless night for both of them. Ed was surprised that the thunder was keeping him awake. Most of the time he could sleep through it, but this time seemed different.

After a while, he gave up with the idea of trying to sleep and stared at the ceiling, letting his mind wander. As always, his thoughts drifted to his brother. Ed yawned as he tried to remember the last moments he'd spent with Al. All he could think of was that train ride. They had been talking, and then…

"Hey, you awake too?"

Ed looked up. Don was standing nearby, his hand resting on the back of the couch. Ed sat up.

"Yeah. Can't sleep."

"Same here."

"What time is it?"

"Around four fifteen. I think I'm giving up on the idea of sleep."

"Too loud for you?"

"That's part of it, but… I don't know. I'm just going to work for a while. You can go back to sleep if you want."

Ed watched as Don went over and sat at the table before lying back down. The action caused him to send a jolt of pain through his chest and he let out a small cry of surprise. He'd almost forgotten about his injuries.

"You okay?" Don asked.

"Yeah." Ed turned on his side and closed his eyes, trying to get some sleep, but his thoughts were going everywhere and he soon gave up on the idea. He got up and walked over to the table, waiting to see whether he'd get shooed away. When he wasn't, Ed sat down and looked with minimal interest at the pictures on the table. One of them caught his eye, and he sat up, trying to get a closer look at it.

"What is it?" Don asked, noticing the alchemist's sudden attention.

Ed stared at the picture for another moment before turning to Don. "These are from the crime scenes, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

Ed pointed at something in the picture. "See those rectangle thingies on the corner of that wall there?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

Ed brought his hands together and formed a blade on his arm. Don started, but Ed ignored it. "I'll change it back later, but look at this." He pointed at the center of the blade, where there were the telltale signs of transmutation. Don looked with increasing interest.

"It's…" Don sat up and picked up the picture. "You're right, it's the same. So we're dealing with an alchemist?"

"Yeah."

"Well, this is an old crime scene. Is there a chance you did this?"

"No way."

"You sure?"

"Positive. Whoever did this really doesn't know what they're doing. It's sloppy."

Don looked pensive for several minutes. Then he looked at Ed. "So you can just make a weapon out of your arm any time you want?"

"Yeah."

Don went back to looking at the picture. "Do you know anyone from… wherever you're from… who would do this kind of thing?"

"Yeah, there's a lot of people like that around, but I don't necessarily know who's behind all this."

"Don't you work for the military?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I know every single alchemist there is. It's one of those things where just about anyone could do it if they worked hard enough at it."

"And you're just at a higher level than most of them."

Ed nodded.

"So… what are the odds that this really is something you did right here?"

"Not good. Like I said, something I make wouldn't look this bad."

Don gathered all the papers and placed them in a pile. "Well, I'm going back to bed. If this guy really is an alchemist, then maybe we're getting somewhere in this case."

------------------

Several hours later, Ed found himself in a car, traveling around Los Angeles to one of the earlier crime scenes. Don was hoping that the sight would help Ed to remember something. Ed was hoping the same thing.

They got out of the car and walked around the old, decrepit building in which the third victim was found. It was also the first that contained any signs of transmutation, and Ed examined these with interest.

"It looks like someone made an extra wall here," Ed muttered.

"You don't think this is from the original building?"

Ed shook his head. "No. It's a little off from the other walls, and it doesn't seem to serve a great purpose, unless it's being used to hide something…"

"That could be, but come over here for a minute, okay?"

Ed walked over to where Don was standing, right next to a large window. Don pointed at the floor and handed Ed a photo. "This is where the victim was found. That picture was taken right when we arrived."

Ed looked at the picture for a moment before giving it back to Don in disgust. "That's…"

"Yeah, it's bad, isn't it? We've been getting a lot of calls from people who are afraid that the same thing will happen to them. It's really not doing a lot of good."

Ed stared at the floor for a while longer. "Damn it…"

Don gave him a moment before asking, "Is this bringing anything back?"

"No."

Don let out a sigh and headed for the door. "Okay. Let's go to another one and see if that does any good."

"Right."

----------------

As they drove, Don noticed something ahead of them. As he got a closer view, he swore and made a sudden change in plans. He pulled up next to the numerous police cars and pulled out his gun. "Wait here," he said to Ed as he got out of the car.

He checked with Sinclair, who was amidst the regular officers, and learned that someone had set up a rather large bomb in the deserted warehouse they were facing, and he was threatening to set it off if they didn't follow his requests. "He's completely serious, and he said he doesn't know just how much damage that thing will do if it goes off. We've evacuated the area, but there's a few civilians stuck in the building with him. He won't let them out."

"What's he asking for?" Don asked.

"He wants us to let the members of his group out of prison. He says they were wrongfully imprisoned."

"Why didn't you call me?"

"We tried, but your phone was off."

Don wanted to kick himself. Of course, he'd turned off his phone so that Ed wouldn't panic if someone called him while they looked around the crime scene. Don checked back at the car. Ed was still inside, but Don could tell the alchemist was resisting the urge to see what was going on. "How much time is this guy giving you?"

"Not much. We're trying to get a sniper over here to take the guy out, but it's taking a while." Sinclair's cell phone rang, and he looked at the number before turning to Don. "It's him."

Don watched as Sinclair answered his phone. "What is it?" he asked.

The terrorist's voice was raspy on the other end of the line. "Who is that with you?"

"One of my coworkers."

"What does he want?"

"I don't know. He just got here, and he didn't know about this until he arrived."

"What about my request?"

"We're working on it."

"You're too slow."

"We're doing the best we c-"

"It's not good enough. I'm not waiting any longer." The terrorist hung up. Sinclair looked at Don with worry on his face.

"He says we're too slow. He isn't waiting."

Don tensed. "We have to get out of here."

"Right." As Sinclair gave the order to evacuate, Don made his way back to his car. To his dismay, he didn't see Ed inside. He turned around to see a red blur making its way toward the building.

"Ah, shit… Ed!"

Ed didn't turn around. He brought his hands together and placed them on the ground. Don saw a flash of light, but nothing appeared from the ground.

"What is he doing?" Terry nearly screamed. "Ed, get out of there!"

But by the time Ed had turned to come back, the building exploded. Once the FBI agents had recovered, Don ran up to where Ed was lying unconscious on the ground. He checked to make sure Ed would be all right before letting someone else take over. They went to the building, which was missing the front part, but strangely, the back was still mostly intact. A few people shakily made their way out of there, only to stop and stare at the giant hole in the ground that blocked their way.

Don looked at the edges of the hole. There were a few scattered rectangles on the ground, and as far as Don could tell, the giant hole was Ed's doing.

"Looks like the bomb dropped down to the basement," Terry stated. "But where did this hole come from? And what was that flash of light?" She looked back at where Ed lay, watching as an ambulance came driving up. Don could tell she was making the connection.

"Don, has he said anything about being able to do things like this?"

"Yeah. He talked about it a while ago."

Nobody mentioned the fact that Don had been keeping this a secret, because the other two knew exactly why he had been doing so. Instead, the went on to more important matters. "How… What's with this kid?"

"He's an alchemist."

--------------

Ed groaned as he slowly gained consciousness. He heard familiar noises in the background, and the ceiling was obnoxiously white. He was sore all over. _Great, I'm in a hospital again._

He saw movement somewhere to his left and looked over. Don walked up to the side of his bed and sat down on a stool. Ed sat up. It was quiet for a minute.

"You are such an idiot."

"What?"

"Why did you just run off into a building with a bomb in it? Don't you have any common sense?"

"Yeah, well maybe you shouldn't have left the window down!"

"You were listening to us?"

Ed crossed his arms. "It's not like I had to try. You were being pretty loud."

Don was quiet for a while. "Okay, fine. You're just lucky it turned out all right. And… thanks."

"Mm."

Don stood up. "I have to go now. I'll pick you up tomorrow, so behave yourself, got it?"

"I have to stay here overnight?"

"Yes, you do. If you have a problem with that, then that's too bad. I'll see you later."

Ed tried to protest, but Don left before he could get the words out. "Hmph." He crossed his arms and sat staring at the wall.

----------------

"So there's another alchemist involved?" Terry asked as they ate their lunch.

Don took a bite out of his sandwich before replying. "Yeah. Ed's positive it wasn't him that did all this." He gestured to the areas that had been transmuted in each of the crime scenes. "And besides, unless the killer knew a few weeks beforehand where the latest victims would be found, there's no way Ed could have made all this. He's been with us the entire time."

"Does Charlie know?"

"No, he wouldn't believe it."

"Maybe not, but he needs to know, doesn't he? It's a new variable."

"He does, but you remember the last time we tried to get Charlie to accept something like this. He flipped."

"There's a difference between the two. Didn't you say that Ed was frustrated because he couldn't come up with an explanation for how he got here from his 'world?'"

"Yeah."

"He doesn't like not knowing how to do things. He'd have to know exactly how everything he does works. Why don't you just have him explain it to Charlie?"

Don thought about it for a moment. "Sure, I guess that would work."

The phone rang. Terry answered it as Don wrote something down. After a moment, she hung up. "They found something interesting near one of the crime scenes."

"Interesting how?"

"A suitcase and a suit of armor. I'd say that's pretty interesting, isn't it?"

Don stood up. "Yeah, I'd say so. Let's go."

----------------

Okay, I have to say this. Ed will _not_ solve one of Charlie's equations. Just because Ed's smart doesn't mean he'll understand everything Charlie says. His focus is alchemy, and while all science does use equations, the ideas are completely different. So unless Charlie starts teaching Ed, Ed's not going to be able to understand everything he's saying in the time span of this story. Sure, he'll get better, but the two each have their own areas of expertise, and for the sake of keeping everyone in character, I'm going to keep it that way.

That's not to say that they'll share their knowledge, but Ed won't beat Charlie in crime-solving math, and Charlie won't beat Ed in alchemy. Hence me pointing out in the last chapter that Charlie's explanations weren't easy for Ed to understand.

And I'm done ranting. Next chapter will be out soon, hopefully.

Edit: Actually, just read hiya24's review for this chapter. It says what I wanted to say, only it's a tad more clear…ish.


	5. Chapter 5

Gah! Sorry it took so long this time! I kinda got stuck writing this part… and on that note, parts of this chapter bother me, but I don't know how to fix it as of yet, so if it bothers you… yeah, sorry… Oh, and just a reminder, this chapter has a lot of references to _I'm Sorry_, so if details of Ed and Al's past don't seem right to you, that's why. And if for some reason you haven't read that story yet, go read it, because it's effing brilliant.

---------------

Al sat quietly in the corner, watching as the local police did their jobs, grateful that he had the ability to stay still for long periods of time. They had already seen that the armor was empty, and he wasn't in the mood for them to ask him questions. He was barely in the mood for anything. All he wanted was to see his brother again, but he had a feeling that would never happen. He'd seen the damage to his brother's body before they'd taken him away, out to the ocean with that woman. He knew that Ed wouldn't be able to swim. If Ed had survived, it would be a miracle.

He watched with vague curiosity as two new people came into the room. They had the others leave the room and went to investigating. One of them, a black-haired man, walked straight up to Al and looked him straight in the eye.

"You're Alphonse, aren't you?"

Al started. He debated for a minute whether or not to speak before the man spoke again.

"It's okay, I heard about you from your brother. Are you okay?"

"Y-yes. You know my brother?"

"Yeah, we found him a couple weeks ago. He's fine."

"Then…"

The man stood up. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

Al nodded and stood up. He followed the two to a car, where he sat quietly in the back, feeling somewhat awkward. As they drove, Al began to wonder if they were really telling him the truth.

"Can I see him?"

The man, who had introduced himself as Don Eppes, turned back to face him. "Not today. He'll be in the hospital until tomorrow, and it wouldn't be the best idea for you to go there."

"We have to ask you some questions first, too, Al," Terry added. "Your brother has amnesia, so he doesn't remember anything that happened."

"Oh, okay. Did he hit his head?"

"It doesn't seem like it. We don't know what happened with him. We were hoping you could tell us."

Al thought about it for a moment. "There's… not really much I can say. I didn't see any of it happen. I didn't see anyone's face, either. All I know is they were using me to keep Ed from doing anything they didn't want him to do."

"They? There's more than one?"

"Yeah. I think there are two, but there may be three. And then they got mad at him, so the last time I saw him, he was unconscious and bleeding. They said they were going to get rid of him."

"So that's why he ended up out in the ocean?"

"Yeah. And… that's all I know, really."

"How did you get away?"

"One of them tried to kill me." Al pointed to a hole in the back of his armor. "They missed the seal somehow, and I just acted like I was dead so they'd leave me alone. I guess it worked."

"They didn't check?"

"How could they? It's not like you can really tell…"

"Right, you don't have a body…"

The car stopped at an apartment building, and Don and Al got out. Don waved to Terry before he headed inside, Al trailing behind with a small amount of unease. They sat at the table in Don's apartment. Al felt more out of place than usual.

"About your brother…"

"Yeah?"

"Where are you two from?"

"Didn't he say?"

"He did, but… I just want to confirm."

"Okay… we're from Resembool."

Don paused. "So… the country of Amestris?"

"Yes. I don't know how to explain it, but the people we were with seem to know about it…"

"So your brother isn't insane."

"…Not really. He's a pain to deal with sometimes, but he isn't insane."

Don sighed. "This is getting complicated."

"Sorry."

"No, it's no big deal. Anyway, what exactly is the deal with him?"

"What do you mean?"

"Since we found him, he's been… I don't know. He'll be really stubborn, and all of a sudden he'll listen to everything we tell him to do. Usually it's one or the other, but this is the first time I've dealt with both."

Al stared at the table for a moment. "Brother told you about how we ended up like this, right?"

"He talked about it some, yeah."

"Well, the day before we did it, two people from the military came, and they found out about what we were planning on doing. They brought us to a nearby city to meet someone who had done what we were planning on doing, but we… well, we ran away before we met whoever it was. I think Ed's afraid of doing something really stupid again, so he's willing to listen to whatever the people around him tell him to do. It doesn't happen often, though."

"No, I guess not. He did something pretty stupid the other day."

"What did he do this time?"

Don raised an eyebrow. "This time? Well, there was a terrorist with a bomb, and Ed ran into the building and used alchemy to prevent a lot of destruction. The bomb still went off, though, and that's why he's in the hospital. Again."

Al smiled to himself. "That sounds like something he would do. He means well, but he doesn't always use common sense."

"Yeah, I noticed that. Hey, I have to get back to work. Are you all right on your own for a few hours?"

Al nodded. "You said Ed would be out of the hospital tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah."

"About his memory loss…"

Don stood up. "Hey, if it was really bad, then how would we know about you? Or anything I've mentioned about him? Don't worry, the only thing that's missing is the past few weeks, and considering what all you've been through, it's not surprising."

Al watched Don leave before muttering to himself, "But brother, are you really that afraid? What did they do to you?"

---------------

Terry and David were just finishing up an inspection of the mystery suitcase when Don arrived. Don looked at the contents before turning to his companions. "So, what do we have here?"

"I don't see anything unusual here, it just looks like someone's travel bag," Terry replied.

"Yeah, but not just anyone's," David continued. He pointed a book out to Don. "How many people do we know who study alchemy?"

"And then we found this picture. These kids look familiar to you?"

Don took the picture and looked at the three children. Two of them were boys, and their eyes and hair were almost the exact same color. Don recognized them both immediately, one from a sketch, and the other from a face he'd been seeing a lot lately.

"I guess this girl is that friend he mentioned," Don said as he put the picture down. "So, anything else in here?"

"Not really, just clothes, a few things that I'm guessing Ed uses to take care of his limbs, and a notebook. There are some papers that you'd find interesting, though."

Don looked through the official looking papers for a moment before putting them down. "The military of Amestris, huh?"

"And that symbol there matches the one on his watch. So either we have an elaborate scam going on here…"

"Or Ed's telling the truth."

---------------

"But how would he get here anyway?" Terry asked as she got into the elevator with Don.

"I don't know, but unless all of these people are planning some elaborate scheme, it has to be true. Besides, what about alchemy?"

"I don't know, this just seems way too strange."

"Yeah…"

They got out of the elevator. Terry walked slightly ahead of Don as they made their way outside. "Anyway, it would probably be better if we treated it as a real country for now. It would be better for Ed, too. Unless he actually had a good time with Dr. Russo."

Don shook his head. "Yeah, I think I'll cancel the appointment."

"All right, see you tomorrow."

Don waved as he got in his car. He pulled out onto the road and made his way home, Ed's suitcase in the back seat.

---------------

"_That's right. Passage fee." A blank face with an eerie grin leaning in close… "Equivalent exchange, no?"_

_Blood. Pain. Something's missing. A body. A human body. Human…_

"_No… This wasn't supposed to happen… AL!"_

Ed woke up with a start. He sat up and looked around, breathing heavily and trying to understand what had happened. Then he fell back on his bed. _It was just a dream…_

He closed his eyes and drifted in and out of consciousness for a while before he heard someone enter the room. He didn't open his eyes until the person put a hand on his shoulder and gently shook him. It was Don.

"Hey, how are you doing?"

Ed blinked a few times, trying to wake up. "Fine." He sat up, gazing wearily around the room before looking back at Don. "What's up?"

Don handed him a picture. "Can you tell me who this is? The boy on the right."

Ed took the picture and looked at it. "This… yeah, that's me. But where…"

"We found it in a suitcase. Along with something else you might find interesting."

"What?" Ed suppressed a yawn. He was tired, and not quite at the point where he could think straight.

"You'll see when we get back. Anyway, they're going to do one last checkup before I can get you out of here, so I'll see you in a bit, okay?"

"Sure."

Ed waited patiently as the nurse removed his bandages and inspected his wounds before covering them again. "Okay, Edward, things are looking good on the front. One of these gashes has an infection, so we're going to have you take something to counter that, so all that's left for you to do is take it easy, and don't run into any more situations that involve a bomb unless it's an absolute emergency, got it?"

Ed raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that a little contradictory?"

"It's a joke. Just don't doing anything that'll put stress on your body."

"What about sparring?"

The nurse paused. "Why would you want to spar?"

"My brother and I do it all the time. If I see him again soon…"

"Okay, that's fine, but not for very long. If you push yourself too hard, your wounds will open and you'll be in here again. Lie down on your stomach for a minute. I need to check your back."

Ed did as he was told and waited as the nurse inspected the scrapes and bruises on his back. He flinched when she touched a rather sensitive area. "Sorry about that. I'm almost done," she said.

"Okay." Ed closed his eyes for a moment as she continued. Then, as she came close to his neck, a rather unwelcome vision came into his mind.

"_Hold still, you brat!"_

_Ed tried to pull away, but the grip on his neck was too strong. He felt himself being pushed up against the wall. "Let go!"_

"_No." A man leaned in close so that his face was an inch away from Ed's. Ed cringed at the man's rancid breath. "You're going to help me with something, little alchemist boy."_

"Edward?"

Ed opened his eyes and looked over at the nurse. She had a look of concern on her face. "Are you all right?"

Ed sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Yeah. Fine."

"Bad memory?"

Ed raised an eyebrow. The nurse smiled. "That's what patients usually do when their thoughts drift to places they don't want to visit."

"What? Do what?"

"You had your eyes closed and you had a death grip on the pillow."

"Oh. Yeah."

"Well, everything checks out, so you're good to go. We'll just get you some medication on the way out."

Ed groaned, but he didn't voice his dislike for taking pills in front of the nurse. "Fine."

--------------

"Okay, here's what he needs to take, and instructions are in the bag. Also, he doesn't have to, but it would be good if he has more calcium in his diet, and we made a very interesting discovery yesterday." The nurse had a strange smile on her face, and Don raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"Well, we all know he hates milk with a passion, right? But flavored milk? No problem."

"Good to know. Anything else?"

"Nope, this is it. He should be fine as long as he takes it easy."

"Okay, thanks."

Don walked over to where Ed was sitting in the waiting room and waited for Ed to stand up. As they drove to Don's office, Ed spent his time staring out the window. It looked like something was troubling him.

"Something wrong?"

Ed continued to stare out the window. "I think I remembered something. Nothing important, but it's something…"

"What did you remember?"

As Ed described what he had seen in the hospital, Don pulled into his parking spot and turned off the car. Once Ed was finished, it was quiet for a while.

"And that's all you remember?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember where you were?"

"I think that happened in the train, because it felt like we were moving…"

"Okay, good. Now we know what one of our guys looks like."

"One of them?" Ed asked with confusion in his voice.

"Yeah. According to another witness, there were at least two suspects."

"Who's this witness?" Ed asked before he could stop himself. Don smiled.

"Someone you know."

"I know a lot of people."

"I'm sure you do."

Ed stopped. "Why are you being all secretive? It's creeping me out."

Don laughed. "Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough."

"And how soon is that?" Ed asked as he continued walking.

"This evening."

"Why can't you just tell me?"

"Okay, how about this? If you don't figure it out by lunchtime, I'll tell you."

"Or you could just tell me now and save the trouble."

"No. I want to see how good you are at figuring things out on your own."

Ed stopped again. "It's my brother, isn't it?"

Don stopped. "Why do you say that?"

"You said you found that picture in a suitcase. The only person who would have a picture like that other than me is my friend Winry, and she doesn't usually travel. And besides, I remember taking that picture with me after the last time I got this fixed," Ed gestured to his arm. "And you said you found it with 'something interesting,' and most people would find an empty suit of armor that can talk and move to be interesting. Plus you're grinning like an idiot."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"Okay, you're right," Don said as they got on the elevator. "Your brother's safe, and he was very relieved to hear that you're alive and well. For the most part."

"That's good."

"Yeah, he got lucky. They came very close to hitting that blood seal."

"What?"

"Al said they tried to kill him, but they didn't succeed, so you're lucky. Both of you are."

"So… can I see him?"

"Not right now. He's at my place. It would have been suspicious to let him in here without him taking off his helmet or anything, so we decided it would be better if he were somewhere where nobody would ask about him who doesn't need to know."

Ed stuck his hands in his pockets. "Thanks."

-------------------

"So, we have a middle aged man, dark hair, brown eyes, with a scar on his hand and very bad breath," Terry said as she looked at the sketch they had placed on the board. "And he's familiar with alchemy. Well, it's a start. Maybe now that he's remembered something he'll remember more."

"It is a start." Don stood up and looked more closely at the board. "And it's probably safe to say that this guy knew he'd find Ed on that train. He was going after him."

"So he knows just what Ed is capable of doing."

"And he also knows that the easiest way to control him is by threatening someone very close to him."

"So shouldn't we keep a closer eye on his brother?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's bring him here. That way Ed won't have to be alone when you bring him in."

"We can't do that."

"Why not?"

Don looked over his shoulder and through the glass to where Ed was sitting on a chair, reading the book that had been found in his suitcase. "If we bring Al here, unless we manage to convince everyone else who works here that it's perfectly safe for a suit of armor to be walking around without being checked first, there are going to be a lot of rumors going around about him. If those rumors get out to the public, then our guy will know that Al survived. And there's already a very good chance he knows about Ed."

"So you're saying it's safer to leave Al on his own?"

"I didn't say it was safer. I'm just saying we can't just bring Al in here without being very careful."

"Then we'll be very careful."

Sinclair looked over at the two for a moment. "You could always say that the armor's a piece of evidence. Or that he's a robot."

Don looked back out at Ed. "Robot… that might work, actually."

"You should go get him."

"Yeah, I'll be back in a bit."

Don left the room and stopped to talk with Ed. It took him a minute to get Ed's attention. "Wow, you're hard to distract, aren't you?"

Ed put the book down and looked up at Don. "Sometimes. What is it?"

"I'm going to pick up your brother. We're going to have to be careful, though. Not many people are going to be fine with a suit of armor just coming in here. We came up with a way to counter that, though."

"And what's that?"

"We're going to say that the armor's a type of robot. One that you made so that your brother could be with you instead of on his own all the time. It'll be close to how it really is, but you can't mention anything about the seal or… pretty much anything that would contradict what we're going to be saying about him."

"What, you're saying to pretend that my brother is a robot?"

"Something like that, yeah."

"Okay."

"Great. I'll be back soon."

------------------

"Ed?"

Ed looked up from his book to see Terry standing in front of him, holding a large cup in her hand. She held it out to him and sat next to him as he took it. "The doctor said you needed more calcium."

Ed looked inside the cup, hoping that the substance inside wasn't what he thought it was. Luckily, it wasn't exactly what he was expecting. He took a sip of the chocolate milk and looked at Terry. It was quiet for a while.

"You know, you did the right thing the other day."

"You think so?"

"I do. You also saved a lot of lives by not trying to go straight for the bomb. Considering the circumstances, you did the best thing you could have done." She paused. "How did you manage to get so coolheaded?"

Ed shrugged. "It's not like this is the first time I've dealt with terrorists."

"You say that as if you've done it a lot."

"I have. Things in my country aren't so great."

"Are you ever afraid?"

Ed looked straight ahead. "Sometimes. Usually whoever it is doesn't know what they're doing and they're easy to deal with. Other times…"

"It's too much for you to handle on your own."

Ed nodded.

"Other than that, how is it in your country?"

"Not so good. There have been wars nonstop since way before I was born."

"Around where you live?"

Ed nodded again. "My hometown was attacked once."

"Were you there when it happened?"

"…Yeah."

"It must have been terrifying."

"It was. I… yeah. It was bad."

"Is that how your mother died?"

Ed looked at Terry in surprise. "What? Oh, no. She got sick a few years before that happened. There was only one person who died." Ed looked around, hoping that the subject would soon be changed, but he wasn't that lucky.

"Did you know the person?" Terry asked.

"…No."

It was quiet for a while. Ed's mind went back to that time against his will, and he found himself reliving the incident.

"_What are you doing?"_

"_I'm getting rid of this brat."_

_Ed's eyes widened, and he twitched as a gun was fired. It took him a moment to realize that he hadn't been shot. He stared wide-eyed as the Ishbalan who had been ready to kill him fell to the ground, blood dripping from a wound in his chest._

_He screamed._

Ed blinked. Something was bothering him, but he couldn't think of what it was. A moment later, it came to him.

"_I'm getting rid of this brat."_

"_What, already? We still need him-"_

"_No. We're going with the original plan. He dies. We're finished here."_

"Ed!"

Ed started and looked to see who had called him. Terry was watching him curiously, a look of worry in her eyes. "Are you okay?"

Ed nodded, even though how he felt wasn't something he could describe as being okay.

"Sorry. I didn't realize it was such a painful subject for you."

Ed shook his head. "It's not that… I… remembered something else."

"About this case?"

Ed nodded. "Yeah."

As Ed told Terry the small fragment of memory he'd regained, he pushed the unwanted memories from his mind. They were unneeded. Right now he had to concentrate. He had to help them find the ones who had done so much to him and his brother.

---------------


	6. Chapter 6

When Al finally saw his brother, the elder Elric was sitting in a small private room in the office. Don closed the door behind Al, giving the two a chance to speak privately. Ed looked quietly into his younger brother's eyes before speaking. "Hey, Al."

"Brother… You're alive…"

Ed stood up. "Yeah. Somehow."

It was quiet for a moment. Then Al grabbed his brother and hugged him with all his might. Ed struggled to get away. "Al! Ow, let go! You're crushing me!"

Al let go and let Ed fall back into his chair. "Sorry."

Ed panted for a while, gripping his chest. "No, it's okay. Just… be a little more careful next time, okay?"

"I will. How are you?"

"You mean other than the broken bones and various other injuries? Fine."

Al sat down on the floor next to Ed, not wanting to tower over his brother at the moment. "Don said they found you right as you were about to die."

Ed nodded. "Yeah, it was a close call."

"We owe him."

"Yeah. We really do."

"Maybe we can find some way to pay him back before we go home."

Ed paused. "But how do we get home, Al?"

"We'll ask that guy."

"What guy?"

Al paused for a moment. "Oh, right, you don't remember. Well, it's one of the two or three who were holding us prisoner. He knows about what's going on, and-"

"Al."

"What?"

"I'm starting to remember."

Al looked into his brother's eyes. "Really?"

Ed nodded. "Not much, but it's a start, right?"

"Yeah."

Ed glanced at the door before turning back to Al. "I think we got lucky, Al."

"Eh? What?"

Before Ed could reply, the door opened and Don came in. "Okay, Ed, you ready to go?"

Al looked curiously at his brother as Ed nodded and stood up. "Go where?" Al asked.

"Just to talk with my brother about this case," Don replied. "We'll probably stop by here sometime later today." With that, Don walked out of the room. Ed hesitated for a moment.

"Um, see you later, Al…"

"Yeah. Be careful."

Ed grinned. "Aren't I always?"

"No."

Ed waved as he left the room. "Oh, what do you know? I'll see you later."

---------------

As they drove through the city, Don was relieved to see that Ed had a half smile on his face. He seemed to be in a better mood than usual, and considering the fragments of memories that Ed had retrieved, it was a very good thing that the alchemist could still be happy.

"So, you ready for this?" Don asked as they got close to the house.

Ed shrugged. "I think so. It's weird to have to think of alchemy as something that nobody knows about, though."

"Because everyone's used to it where you're from, right?"

Ed nodded. "For the most part. Everyone knows about it, at least."

At that moment, Don decided to ask something that had been bothering him for a while. "But does everyone like it?"

Ed raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

"I… don't really know."

Ed looked straight ahead. "No. Some people have big problems with it, big enough for a civil war to break out."

"Has anyone ever attacked you because of alchemy?"

Ed lowered his gaze to his hands. "Yes."

It was quiet in the car, and Don decided to turn on the radio. Besides, he figured, Ed needed to get accustomed to modern American music. The only flaw in Don's theory was that he happened to turn on a news station. He didn't think much of it until they started talking about events in the Middle East. He looked at Ed, who seemed to be listening with vague interest, and decided to leave it. It couldn't hurt to have Ed hear about current affairs. However, when the newsman began to talk about some hostage situation, Don noticed Ed tense.

Don turned off the radio and pulled into a parking lot. Once the car was stopped, Don turned to Ed. "Okay, what's wrong?"

Ed glanced up at Don with some irritation. "Nothing."

"Ed, most people don't react to the news like that unless they're either very sensitive or they have some personal connection to it, and I doubt you're that sensitive."

Ed frowned. "Why do you care?"

"Because it seems to be a big deal to you."

"That's not a good reason."

Don sighed. "Okay, how about this: if you can tell me about it, I'll be more willing to believe that your country does exist. Besides, Terry told me about earlier."

Ed folded his arms and looked down. "Fine." Don waited for Ed continue. After a minute or two, Ed spoke again. "I told you about Ishbal, right?"

"Yeah."

Ed sighed. "Several years ago, sometime during that conflict, there was an attack on my hometown. Some Ishbalans had come in and they were going to attack the train station, but someone found out about it, so they took a hostage instead." Ed pulled out the picture, which he had been keeping in his pocket, and pointed at Winry. "Since we grew up together, me and Al went to help her, but it was a really bad idea, since we ended up getting caught too." Ed was silent for a minute. "I ended up talking to them for a while. I ended up begging them to let us go, but they wouldn't, and then one of them said… something about the child who had been killed, the incident that triggered the entire war."

Don waited patiently for Ed to continue, but Ed was silent. "How did you manage to get through it?" Don asked, hoping to get Ed to continue.

Ed let out a quiet sigh. "After a while, the one said that he was giving up, but one of his friends got pissed. He had a gun, and he was about to kill me… But the one… the one who had been talking to me shot him first." Ed folded his arms again. "And that's when the military finally decided to show their faces."

Don was quiet for a minute before he put the car back in drive. "That's rough."

But Ed wasn't finished. "The next day some people from the military came and started asking us a bunch of questions we didn't know the answers to. One of them was really pushy, and I remember shouting at him because he was making Winry cry."

Don sighed. "Sounds like a real nice guy." Don thought about what Ed had said for a while. "But you still joined the military."

"Yeah, for Al's sake."

Don thought about it for a while. "Al said something about two soldiers coming to your house."

Ed nodded. "Colonel Mustang and First Lieutenant Hawkeye. Mustang's the one I work under."

"Do you like him?"

Ed shrugged. "He's an idiot, but I guess he's fine."

"What about the rest of the military?"

"Corrupt."

"All of them?"

"Most of them."

Don was quiet for a while. _I guess that explains why he seems so old for his age…_ He parked the car and got out. Ed followed silently as they walked up to where Charlie stood, waiting patiently for the two to arrive.

-----------------

"Alchemy?" Charlie repeated incredulously, looking from Ed to Don in the hopes that one of them would burst out laughing, but they both looked perfectly serious.

"That's what I said, Charlie. Ed is an alchemist, and so is at least one of the people we're after," Don replied.

"But that doesn't even make sense!"

"Maybe not to you, but you didn't grow up around it," Ed said.

"It's nothing like the old fairy tale alchemy we know about, Charlie," Don added. "Ed has a perfectly logical explanation for it all."

"Most of it, at least," Ed muttered.

"Just listen to what he has to say, okay?" Don asked before making his way to the backyard, where his father was working on some home improvement project. "It's important."

"Are you kidding me?"

Ed gave an irritated sigh and brought his hands together. This time, however, instead of forming a blade on his arm, he reached out and touched Charlie's shirt, changing the pigment so that the shirt was now light green instead of brown. "No," Ed said as Charlie stared at the fabric. "This isn't a joke."

Charlie sat down and stared at Ed for at least a minute before speaking. "Okay, let's hear it."

Ed sat down across from Charlie at the table and began explaining the very basic points of alchemy. It didn't take long for Charlie to shake his head in despair. "This is pretty complicated, even for me."

"But do you get any of it?" Ed asked.

"Yes," Charlie replied wryly. "You're making it very hard to argue against."

Ed grinned. "I've understood most of what I just said since I was five."

"Yeah, right," Charlie replied. "Even I wouldn't have been able to do that."

"Well, it's true. Ask Al. It's the same for him."

"Wait, if you need a formula, then why didn't you need one when you did this?" Charlie asked, pointing to his shirt.

Ed paused. "That's… where it gets tricky."

"Tricky how?"

Ed shook his head. "I don't really know…"

-------------

Don glanced at the door as he helped his father move a large plank of wood across the yard. Ed and Charlie had been talking for at least half an hour, and Don was beginning to wonder if bringing Ed down had really been the best idea. After a while, Alan noticed his son's preoccupation.

"Something bothering you, Don?"

Don looked at the door again. "No, I just didn't think it would take this long."

Alan went back to working on his project. "Well, you know Charlie. If that kid's as smart as you say he is, we probably won't see them for a few weeks."

Don laughed. "Too bad we don't have that much time."

After another few minutes, Charlie and Ed came outside. Charlie was wearing a light green shirt instead of the brown one he had put on that morning. Don didn't say anything, figuring that Ed had done something to the shirt, but Alan looked at Charlie curiously.

"Weren't you wearing a brown shirt earlier?" he asked.

Don noticed Charlie flashing Ed a death glare before stammering out an answer. "Y-yeah, but I spilled something on it so I changed." Charlie cleared his throat and turned to Don. "Anyway, I think I have everything I need now, so I'll get to work on it tonight. I should be done soon."

"Great, thanks," Don replied.

--------------

Ed was bored. He had finished reading his book, and he had nothing else to do, other than read a history book, and he wasn't in the mood to read anymore. Instead, he spent his time sitting on the couch and staring at the ceiling, trying to think about what he and Al would do when they got back home, assuming they ever did…

After a while, he gave up with trying to think and picked up the book. Don was working in the kitchen, and looked up with vague interest as he saw Ed sit up and began reading before going back to work.

"So, you enjoying that?" Don asked after a while.

Ed grunted in reply. _Not really…_ He paused for a minute as he stared at the picture at the beginning of the chapter he was about to read: _The Holocaust and World War II._ Something about it peaked his interest, and he began reading more intently.

After a while, Don finished up for the night and went over to where Ed was sitting. Ed looked up to see Don sitting on a chair nearby, and closed his book.

"You find something interesting in there?" Don asked, gesturing to the book that was now sitting on the table.

Ed paused for a minute. "Yeah…" Ed thought about it for a minute, trying to think of a way to explain what he had noticed. "It's… well, familiar, I guess…"

"Familiar?"

Ed nodded. "Yeah, that guy, Adolf Hitler…"

"What about him?"

"He's… sort of like the person who rules my country… in a few ways…"

This seemed to peak Don's interest. He leaned forward and asked, "How so? Is it because of Ishbal?"

"Y-yeah, and… it might just be me, but they look vaguely similar…"

"It's probably a coincidence."

"That's why I said 'sort of,'" Ed growled. "I just think it's weird that there are all these similarities."

Don nodded. "It is. But right now we need to concentrate on other issues. Speaking of which, have you remembered anything else?"

Ed thought about it for a moment. "No. If I had I would have told you."

Don shrugged. "Just thought I'd check."

It was quiet for a minute before Don got up and began working on dinner. The rest of the evening was a quiet one, and when Ed went to sleep that night, he hoped that he would wake up with at least a small fragment of his memories returned.


	7. Chapter 7

Yes, I suck at updates. No, I'm not going to try and get better at it. I like to make you all suffer. :D

---------------

Much to both Ed and Don's dismay, the next day dawned with more rain than either of them thought was possible. Don went outside to see how bad it was, and was nearly hit by a car that had lost control on the slick roads. Once he made sure the people inside the vehicle were all right, Don decided to call in to say he was going to work at home with Ed for the day. Nobody argued against it, since just about everyone else had had some sort of near-death experience that morning.

"Okay," Don said as he hung up the phone. "Let's see if there's any way to get the rest of your memories back."

Ed nodded. "Okay. How?"

Don thought about it for a while. "Hmm… well, how did it happen the first two times?"

Ed shrugged. "Well, it was pretty random… I guess it was because something reminded me… like something happened that was similar to what I remembered…"

"How was it similar?"

Ed briefly recounted the incident in the hospital before pausing. After a few minutes of silence, Don asked Ed to continue. "What about the second time?"

"I… was thinking about that one time, and…"

"I get it," Don said to keep Ed from getting too upset. "The only problem is, how are we supposed to do that now? Bringing you to the crime scenes didn't help, and even if it could, we can't exactly do that now." Just then, a bolt of lightning flashed less than fifty yards away from the building, and the power went out, proving Don's point. Once they were over the initial shock, Don sighed and stood up to look for a flashlight. He found two and brought them back to the living room.

"I'm going to go see if the power's out in other places too. You stay here and check to see if anything got damaged, okay?"

Ed nodded. "Sure."

Indeed, the power was out for the entire block. Don sighed as he opened the door to his living room – and heard a thud, followed by a yelp of pain. Don closed the door and ran to where Ed was now sitting on the floor, rubbing his head and frowning.

"You okay?" Don asked. "What happened?"

"I tripped," Ed replied as he got to his feet. "But everything seems to be okay in here. I-" Ed abruptly cut his sentence short and stared off into space for a moment.

"Um, Ed? You okay?" Don asked.

Ed blinked. "Oh. Yeah, I'm fine."

"What was that all about?"

"Um…"

-------------------

_Ed cried out in pain as he hit the ground, completely unable to break his fall with his hands. He tried to get to his feet, but to no avail. He heard footsteps behind him, and after a moment, the dark-haired man came into view. He laughed as he slid his arm underneath Ed's chest and picked him up off the ground. Ed struggled as hard as he could to get away._

"_Let me go, you bastard!" he cried, but after a minute of this, the man set Ed down and pulled out a piece of cloth. He gagged the alchemist before picking him back up and walking through the dark… place they were in._

"_Stop struggling now. It's useless, and besides, your little brother wouldn't appreciate you risking his life like that."_

_Ed stopped immediately. The man laughed as he dropped Ed to the ground. "Okay, get ready for the most exciting moment of your _short_ life."_

The room was quiet after Ed shared the most recent memory he'd gained. After a while, Don spoke up. "Do you know what happened before that?"

Ed shook his head. "No, but I think it was probably soon after they found me on the train."

"That would make the most sense. Is there anything you can remember after that?"

Ed thought hard for a minute. "There was… some kind of bright light, and then…" He frowned. "I think after that is when we got to this… world…"

Don nodded. "Okay, so I guess they knew what they were doing when they brought you two over here. Now we just need to find out what their motives are and-" Don stopped and looked at Ed, who was still frowning. "Is there something else?"

"He seems… familiar. Like I met him somewhere else… But I don't know where." Ed sighed. "I guess I've met too many people to really know for sure who he is…"

Don stood up. "Maybe you'll remember that later on. Is that it for now?"

Ed nodded. "Yep."

"Okay, I'll let the others know as soon as we get power back. Sadly enough, I was charging my cell phone when the power went out, so that's dead right now."

"I could probably use alchemy to-"

"Um, no, that's okay." Don looked at the battery-powered clock he had in the living room and went into the kitchen. "Anyway, what do you say we try to find something we don't have to cook for lunch?"

Ed nodded. "Okay."

----------------

Both of the Elric brothers were spacing out the next day. Ed was trying not to fall asleep, and Al was trying to keep Ed awake, but after a while, he gave up. Thankfully, nobody needed to talk to Ed much that morning, so it wasn't a problem. They let him sleep until Charlie came in sometime in the afternoon.

By the time Charlie arrived, Don and the others had gone to investigate the latest murder. He went into the room where Ed and Al were staying for the day and paused when he saw Al.

"Oh, hi. You must be Alphonse," Charlie said, holding a hand out to Al. "I'm Charlie."

Al shook Charlie's hand briefly before glancing at his brother, who had somehow ended up on the floor. "It's nice to meet you," Al said as he tried to wake Ed up. Ed weakly waved a hand in Al's direction before hiding his head and mumbling, "Go 'way, Al…"

"Brother!" Al grabbed Ed by his braid and pulled him into a sitting position.

"Ow! What was that for?" Ed snapped as he began rubbing his head. It took him a minute to realize that Charlie was watching him, trying his best not to laugh. "Oh. Hi."

Charlie put his stuff down on the table and watched as Ed got up and sat on a chair. "What are you doing here?" the half-awake teen asked.

"Oh, you know… working, trying to dye my shirt back to its original color…"

Ed frowned. "You don't like it?"

"Oh, no, it's fine, except for that weird… thing on the back."

"What weird thing?"

"It's like… a weird demon looking thing. It's kind of ugly."

Ed heard a snicker from behind and shot Al a death glare. "What, you don't like my sense of style?"

Charlie laughed. "No, it's fine, just… not on my shirt."

"Okay, I'll fix it. Jeez."

Al put a hand on Ed's head and ruffled his hair. "Aw, brother, that's so nice of you."

"Al, you touch my head again and I'll turn your armor into a clown suit," Ed growled, and Al immediately put his hands in his lap. Ed smiled in satisfaction before looking at Charlie's papers. "So what all did you figure out?"

"A bunch of stuff," Charlie replied. "I think they'll be able to find the guys with this."

Ed leaned back in his seat. "I hope so." Ed paused. "Wait, shouldn't you be giving that to Don?"

"Yeah, but he's not here right now."

"Why not?"

"Oh, yeah, brother, you were asleep, but they found another victim," Al said. "They're going to be back later."

"Oh."

The three talked for a while, trying to pass the time until Don got back. After a while, Ed found himself talking about alchemy. He began talking about some of his and Al's experiences, being careful to avoid the subject of human transmutation. Every once in a while, Al would have to correct Ed on a detail, but for the most part, the armor stayed quiet.

"So, I was wondering," Charlie said after a while. "This might not be the best question to ask, and you don't have to answer it, but… back when we first met, Ed, you said that you had been studying the human body, and you mentioned your mother…"

Ed's face darkened. "We did. And neither of us realized that what we wanted to do was impossible."

Charlie was slightly startled by Ed's answer. "Sorry."

Ed shook his head. "No, it's fine."

Just then, the door opened, and Terry waved before turning to Charlie. "Okay, we're ready."

Charlie stood up. "Great. I'll see you later," he said to the brothers as he left the room.

Once the door was closed, Ed stuck his hands in his pockets and sighed.

"You okay, brother?" Al asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"He's pretty nice."

Ed nodded. "Yeah. I just don't want to try explaining alchemy to him ever again."

"Why not?"

"He spent most of his time in denial. It was a little annoying."

Al chuckled. "Oh, come on, brother, if it were you, you'd probably do the same thing."

"True…"

"So, how long do you think…" Al trailed off as he looked at his brother. Ed's eyes were closed, and he seemed to be asleep. Al poked him in the face to check, and indeed, Ed was sleeping. Al shook his head and waited patiently for the meeting to be over.

---------------

"And, from all that," Charlie concluded. "I managed to pinpoint five places where the suspects would be most likely to station themselves. They're fairly spread out across the city, as you can see…" Charlie gestured to the map behind him. "But they all have something in common: each one has easy access to the places where the victims are usually found, with the exception of one."

"The one we found when we found Ed," Don finished.

"But why would they go out of their way to take Ed out to sea when they could have just left him somewhere else?" Terry asked.

"Probably because of his automail. He'd sink to the bottom and drown, which would probably be a worse death than doing what they did with the others," Don replied, gazing thoughtfully at the map. "Wait, what are these areas?"

Charlie looked back to see what Don was pointing at. "Oh, those are areas where they've most likely used already. I don't know if you've been to those places yet, but there might be some leftover traces of them there…"

Don nodded. "Yeah, could be… thanks, Charlie."

Once Charlie had gone back home, Don went to check on Ed and Al. Ed was awake when he entered, and gave Don a questioning look. Don ignored it for a moment as he addressed the two. "We're going to check a few things out, so it's going to be late when I get back. Actually, it might be better for you to stay here tonight, if that works for you."

Ed nodded. "Yeah, that's fine. But, um… where exactly…"

"You'd… we have a place… um…"

About an hour later

"This is humiliating," Ed muttered, his arms folded across his chest as he stood next to his brother.

"It's not that bad, brother," Al replied. "It's just for one night, and besides, it's not like we're in trouble or anything…"

"But still, it feels like we're prisoners…"

If Al could roll his eyes, he would have. _Gee, I wonder why._

Ed glared at Al and collapsed on one of the beds. "I give up. It's not like being stuck in a prison cell for one night is going to kill me…"

"That's the spirit, brother," Al said in an eerily cheerful voice. "And don't worry, the people are nice here."

"How would you know?" Ed asked.

"Where do you think I've been staying, brother?" Al realized that it wasn't the best lie, but he just wanted Ed to stop worrying.

"Oh." Ed sighed. "I can't believe I let him talk me into this…"

Al sighed as his brother fell asleep. He hoped that morning would come quickly, because he didn't much care for the looks the other prisoners were giving them. He sat down on the bed at the opposite corner of the cell from his brother and waited for the night to be over.

---------------

The next morning, Ed woke up to Al poking him in the face. He shoved the hand away and sleepily sat up, rubbing his eyes with his left hand. "Whasgoinon?" he asked wearily as he looked around. After a minute, he saw Don standing behind Al.

"Come on. It's time to go."

Ed nodded and got up, trudging quietly behind his brother and Don out of the prison area. Once they were at the office area, Ed and Al began the routine they had somehow become accustomed to since yesterday; i.e., sitting around in an extra room and waiting for someone to give them something to do.

After a while, the brothers began talking about stuff, mostly so Ed didn't go insane with the boredom. Strangely enough, he wasn't tired enough to fall asleep.

"So… how was it for you last night?" Ed asked.

"It was fine. I had a nice conversation with someone else."

"The guard person? He seemed a little too strict for my tastes…"

"No, brother. I was talking to one of the prisoners."

Ed blinked. "You were?"

"Yeah. He was really nice, considering the fact that he's a criminal. He likes cats, too."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Of course, that makes him a saint."

"That's not what I said, brother. I just said he likes cats. He has three at home."

"How did you end up talking about cats?"

"Um…"

Ed stared at Al in shock. "How did you manage to hide a cat all this time without anyone noticing?"

"I didn't, brother. We were talking about you, and he said something about you having cat-like eyes. It was kinda weird, but he didn't really mean anything by it."

"Are you sure?"

"What? Yeah, brother, I'm sure he's fine. He isn't even in prison for hurting other people. It's some kind of drug thing."

"No, I mean about the cat. You really don't have a cat in there?"

"No, I don't."

Ed stood up. "Well, I'm looking just in case."

"Go right ahead, brother. I don't have a cat."

Ed had a very good feeling that Al was telling the truth, but he just wanted to be sure. He quickly pulled off Al's helmet and checked inside. Sure enough, there wasn't a cat inside. Ed sat back down and gave Al his head back.

"Okay, just checking." Ed paused. "Hey, Al, when we get back home, after we get our bodies back deal with that other problem…"

"Yeah?"

"Well, maybe we could-" Ed stopped.

"_Well, now, isn't this precious?" the dark-haired man sneered. "The younger brother trying to protect the older one. You, armor boy, get out of here. You're unneeded."_

"_But-"_

_A shot rang out, and Ed cringed. "I meant now, boy! Go back to your little room and play with your kitties!"_

_Ed watched helplessly as Al unwillingly stood up and left the room. Then he felt a hand on his shirt that pulled him up. "Come on, Fullmetal Alchemist, you have some work to do."_

_Ed unwillingly followed the man to a nearby alley and stared with horror and disgust at the woman in front of him. She looked up at Ed with fear in her eyes._

_The man placed a gun in Ed's hands. "It's time for you to finish up here."_

_Ed looked from the gun to the woman, and back to the gun. "No, I can't."_

"_You don't have a choice. It's either her or your brother, and I know how much you care about him…"_

_Ed dropped the gun, turned and walked away, but he didn't make it too far before he heard a click behind him._

"_Here's the problem with what you're doing, Fullmetal. You leave, and both of them will die. You refuse to kill her, you and your brother will die. You kill her, your brother lives. It's simple, really."_

"_It's not simple!" Ed shouted. "I'm not a cold-blooded murderer like you!"_

"_It doesn't matter. Someone is going to die here, and it might as well be someone worthless like her. And besides," the man continued, pointing to the gun in his hand. "Don't you want to get your brother out of that terrible body? Don't you want to give him a chance to get a cute little kitten? You can't leave him now."_

_Ed cringed. "Fine… I'll do it."_

"_Good. Let's go back then."_

_Ed trudged back to the alley and accepted the gun. He pointed it at the woman, who stared at him in fear, and put a finger on the trigger. Before he pulled it, though, the gun slipped out of his automail hand, and he landed a kick on the man's stomach. He grabbed the woman's hand and pulled her to her feet. "Run!" he cried, pulling her along as much as he could. She soon figured out that she needed to run in order to survive, and they sprinted through the alleyway until they came to a dead end._

_Ed stopped and clapped his hands. "Okay, I'm going to make a way for you to escape, so when I do, keep running until you can find someone to help you, okay?" Ed smiled. "Don't worry about me, either. I can deal with this guy. Just get yourself to safety and DON'T mention this guy to anyone because he'll come after you." Ed didn't know if what he was saying was true, but he had a feeling it might be._

_The woman nodded, and ran through the hole Ed transmuted in the wall. Ed watched for a second before covering the hole back up again. He ran the other way, hoping to get through another alley – and ran into the dark-haired man._

"_You fool!" the man shouted as he grabbed Ed's arms and pushed Ed against the wall. "Don't ever try something like that again! In fact…" the man grinned. "I don't think you'll be able to." With that, the man kicked Ed hard in the ribs and laughed when he heard a crack. "Your part in this is over."_

"Brother!"

Ed started as Al's voice brought him out of his flashback. "Ah! You startled me…"

"Brother, are you okay? You seem a little…"

"I'm fine, Al." Ed took a deep breath and looked around the room. "Well, actually…"

"Did you remember something else?"

"Yeah. I did."

Al stood up. "You should tell someone."

Ed shook his head. "N-not yet. I need a minute to think."

"Brother…"

"Al, I tried to help one of them… and I even made it so she could escape, but…"

"What?"

"They caught her anyway… I think she's the one they found right before they found me in the ocean, and… She had a more painful death than anyone else, all because of me…"

"Brother, don't say that. You tried… you really tried your best. I know you did."

Ed stared at his hands. "It doesn't really feel like it, though."


	8. Chapter 8

Short chapter, quick update. I think it all works out in the end. Besides, lotsa stuff happening in this chapter.

-------------------

Ed didn't mention anything he had said to Al when he described the incident to Don and co. He was putting all his effort into keeping his voice steady, and somehow, it worked. Once Ed was finished, he waited quietly for someone to say something.

"Is that it?" David finally asked.

Ed nodded.

"You're positive?"

Ed nodded again.

"Okay, you can go now."

Ed quietly left the room and left the FBI peoples to discuss what Ed had told them.

"So we might have another survivor," Don said. "We should get the word out, see if anyone's seen anyone around who matches Ed's description."

"What about the witness who came in and identified Ed? She almost completely fits Ed's description, and her account of events matches up pretty well with his."

"It does, but then why wouldn't she just come out and say what happened?"

"She was probably too afraid, and besides, she probably believed Ed when he said he'd take care of everything."

Don looked out the window. "Okay, then let's bring her back in here."

"I'm on it," Terry replied as she went to her desk and looked up the number. Don looked over at where Ed was sitting with his brother, and went over to talk to Ed again.

Ed and Al weren't doing much when Don came into the room, and they both looked up at him with curiosity. "What is it?" Ed asked.

"Just one more question that I forgot to ask back there," Don replied. "Do you remember if you've met him before?"

Ed frowned and looked into his brother's eyes, clearly asking for help. After a minute, the two shook their heads in unison. "No."

"You sure?"

Ed began to nod but suddenly froze. "Actually…" Ed shifted in his seat and looked at Al. "Al, you remember that one guy from a couple years ago, when we went to the west?"

"You mean that time when you ran off in the middle of the night and didn't tell me where you were going?" Al replied.

"Um, yeah, that time…" Ed turned back to Don. "Anyway, I don't know for sure, but I think he used to work for the military."

"Your military?"

Ed nodded. "Yeah. Al and I were…" Ed hesitated. "Looking for something out in the western part of the country, and we met this guy…"

"At first he seemed normal enough," Al continued. "Just a typical corrupt high-ranking officer, but he got kinda weird after a while."

Ed folded his arms. "That moron tried to convince me to help him with some stupid goal of his. Don't remember what it was, but it wasn't something I would want to do, so I rejected him."

"After that, he gave us a hard time for a while, trying to get my brother in trouble and get him kicked out of the military," Al added. "But since brother outranked him, it didn't have much of an effect, and brother reported him to the higher-ups in Central. I think he got kicked out after that."

"Yep."

"So he might have brought you into this for revenge?" Don asked.

Ed nodded. "Most likely."

Don raised an eyebrow. "And… you're being pretty calm about that."

"It's not like he's the only one." Ed grew more serious as he continued. "There's at least one other person who wants me dead because they have some stupid need for revenge."

Don shook his head. "I don't think I want to know…"

"I didn't do anything, though." Ed looked straight into Don's eyes. "It's because of what other state alchemists have done. I just got dragged into it because people know who I am."

It was quiet for a minute before Terry opened the door and gestured to Don. Don left the room and walked with Terry to her desk.

"Did you get in touch with her?" Don asked.

"I did, but she said she's out of town. She's getting back in two days, so she'll come over then."

Don nodded. "Right. Well, I think we have a motive for our suspect. At least, for why he brought Ed into it."

"Yeah? What do you think it is?"

"Ed just remembered where he's met that guy before. Long story short, Ed got him kicked out of the military."

"So we're dealing with someone who used to be a soldier?"

"Yep."

Terry rolled her eyes. "Great, just what we need. But I guess it does explain why we've had such a hard time finding this guy."

Don nodded. "But just why is he going around and killing women in the US? It doesn't make sense."

Terry shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."

And with that, they went back to working on the case.

-----------------

The next night, Ed found himself sitting outside with Charlie as they waited for their food to arrive. Don was inside, talking to someone on the phone. It was a very quiet night, and Ed was glad that he had at least a little bit of a break.

He looked up at the sky, vaguely thinking about how hard it was to see the stars. Instead, he saw a blinking light make its way across the sky. He looked at it for another minute.

"What is that?" he asked Charlie.

"Huh? What are you looking at?" Charlie replied, following Ed's gaze.

"That light up there. What's it from?"

"Oh, the plane? It's nothing too exciting. We get them around here all the time."

Ed continued looking up at it. "A plane?"

"Yeah, what else could it… oh. You've never seen one before?"

Ed shook his head. "No. My country doesn't focus as much on physics as you do here. What are those things for?"

"Planes?"

Ed nodded.

Charlie looked back up at the sky. "Most of them are used for transportation. Planes can go faster than the speed of sound, and they can travel long distances in a matter of hours. You can get to the other side of the ocean in about twelve hours."

"Really?" Ed looked up. "I bet they're dangerous too, right?"

"Yeah, very. There was something a few years ago where a couple of people hijacked a couple of planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York. That's why airport security is so tight nowadays."

"Terrorists?"

"Yep."

"What happened after that?"

"You know about the war that's going on right now, right?"

Ed nodded.

"That one attack is a part of the reason."

Ed wrapped his arms around his knees. "Do they use planes in the military?"

"Actually, yeah. There's an entire division dedicated to flying. It's called the Air Force."

It was quiet for a while. Then Ed spoke again. "It's hard to tell here."

"Hmm?"

"Back home, war affected everyone. I know a lot of people who lost their parents or someone else in their family, but here… it's like it doesn't even exist."

"Yeah, that's how it was here over sixty years ago, but things have changed a lot. It'll probably change in your country, too, after a while."

Ed thought about what he had been on his way to do before he had been kidnapped. "If it still exists…"

"What was that?"

Ed shook his head. "Nothing."

----------------

Don stood just inside as he listened to Ed and Charlie's conversation. Someone had suggested bringing Ed back due to some sort of security threat, and he was waiting for a good time to interrupt the two, since Ed seemed to need to talk to someone who wasn't quite as involved in his case. After another look at the young alchemist, Don decided to wait until after dinner.

Once Don had Ed in the car and they were heading back to the office, a call came through on the radio. Don listened to it intently as Ed stared off into space in the back seat.

"What's wrong?" Ed asked a moment later.

Don hesitated a moment, debating whether or not to tell Ed what he had heard. Ed blinked and sat up a bit in his seat. "Does it have something to do with me?" Don could hear some nervousness in the alchemist's voice. He quietly nodded his head as he stopped for a stop light.

"Yeah. They got a call… I'm supposed to bring you back as soon as I can." Don stepped on the gas pedal as the light changed to green, only to slam on the brakes as a man ran into the middle of the road several yards after the intersection. Since it was so sudden, the car directly behind them smashed into them, sending broken glass flying into the back seat, and into the back of Ed's head, as well as sending a chunk of metal into Ed's left shoulder. Ed cried out in surprise and pain. The man had disappeared.

Don immediately got out of the car and ran around to Ed's side, only to stop and stare at the car behind him. He looked at Ed and signaled that he was going to help the others, and Ed nodded. Don pulled out his phone and made a couple of emergency calls before turning to check on the people in the other car.

When he had done all he could for them, Don turned back to his own car, and groaned in dismay as he saw that Ed was no longer in the car. Blood was splattered on the ground up until a few feet away. Don cursed as he did a quick search of the area, finally inspecting the ground where the blood stopped. There on the ground were countless small rectangles; the telltale sign of a transmutation.

Don frantically searched the area for a manhole cover, but soon found that the only one was underneath the wreckage of the other car. "Shit," he muttered as he went back to where two young children where standing, staring at their injured parents in shock and horror. Don knew that the parents would live as long as they got medical attention, but he couldn't expect the kids to know that. He did everything he could to comfort them until the EMTs and his fellow FBI agents arrived.

------------------

For the longest time, all Ed could concentrate on was the sharp pain shooting through his upper body. He was vaguely aware of other things as well, such as the nasty smell in the air and the grip of the man who was carrying him, but the pain was predominant in his mind.

The pain was in his head. And in his stomach. His shoulder ached as well, and he could feel blood running down his arm. Part of him was grateful that the pain was so bad. If he hadn't been focused on that, he would have vomited from the smell. He struggled to get away, wanting the man's grip to loosen and therefore make it less painful for him. The grip tightened.

"Don't try anything. If you get away from me and get yourself dirty, you're going to get sick."

Ed stopped struggling. It took too much effort anyway. After a while, the man stopped, and Ed felt his hands being tied together. Then the man adjusted Ed so that his arms were looped around the man's neck, and the man began climbing up a ladder or something. Ed opened his eyes. He could see better now, since they seemed to be arriving at someplace that was well lit. His captor's hair was dirty blonde and of medium length. Ed tried hard to think about what that meant before remembering that the dark-haired man's companion had the same hair. Ed groaned.

"Shut up," the man growled. "We're not doing anything for your little injuries until we arrive at our destination."

"Where are we going…" Ed muttered.

"Nowhere you'd know of. Now shut up and hold still."

Ed did as he was told as someone lifted him off of the man's back and laid him on the ground. Ed moaned in pain as he looked up at the face of the dark-haired man, who was grinning in ecstasy.

"Well, look at this. You're still alive. Well then, shall we continue what we were doing before you stupidly resisted?"

Ed glared at the man and tried to bring his hands together, but before he could, the light-haired man placed both his knees on Ed's chest, placing pressure on Ed's chest and preventing him from moving. Ed looked at the dark-haired man, who was pulling off Ed's long-sleeved shirt. Once he got it off, the dark-haired man began to pull off Ed's automail. Ed tried to hit him, but sadly enough, at the moment, his captors were stronger. All Ed could do was wait as they flipped him onto his stomach and began to roughly treat his wounds.

"Don't expect more than this. All we want at the moment is for you to be alive and conscious," the light-haired man said as he ripped part of Ed's shirt and transmuted it into a makeshift bandage. Ed tried to see what the dark-haired man was doing, but he couldn't concentrate. Within minutes, Ed had lost consciousness, and was completely at the mercy of his enemies.


	9. Chapter 9

Back at the office, Don and the others were working frantically to figure out where Ed could have been taken. Of course, they had Charlie's list of locations, and had sent out people to each of them, but Don had another way to find where Ed was.

He turned to his computer, opened a program, and quickly entered a number. The number was the same as on a small chip Don had placed in Ed's watch not too long before. Ed had questioned it at first, but he had soon accepted it. Right now, Don was glad Ed had agreed to it.

As he waited for it to load, Don sat back in his chair and sighed. He had told Al what had happened, expecting the armor to be upset, but Al had just sat there. Don hadn't known how Al felt until the younger Elric spoke. Don was impressed with how calm Al had been, but part of him wished Al wasn't so optimistic. If Ed was killed…

Don shook his head, not wanting to think about what would happen to Al if he lost his brother. It wouldn't be easy to keep his… unique existence a secret from the rest of the government, and if they found out, Al would never have a chance for a semi-normal life. Then again, they didn't have much of a chance for that if Ed lived, either, but at least Al wouldn't be alone.

Terry walked up to his desk and stood next to him, looking at the computer screen as well. "Looks like Charlie was right," she said, pointing to the blinking dot on the screen.

"Yep," Don replied.

"How did Al take the news?"

"Fine. He's convinced that Ed's going to be fine."

"Do you think he's wrong?"

Don stood up and headed to the area where they kept their weapons and stuff. "I don't want him to be, but there's a good chance that he is. Especially considering how badly injured Ed was in the first place."

As soon as they were ready, the two agents headed out to their car. "Well," Terry said. "Let's just hope he's as strong as he's appeared to be."

-------------

_Ugh… my head hurts… _Ed shifted his position slightly. He was lying on his right side, and his right arm was missing._ Oh, right, they took it off… _he thought as he tried to examine his surroundings. He was in a dark room, so dark he couldn't see anything other than outlines, and his head was resting on a pillow…_ A warm pillow…_ Ed wasn't too surprised when he felt a hand gently stroke his hair.

"I take it you're awake?" came a female voice from behind him. "How are you doing?"

"My head hurts…" Ed muttered. He felt cloth pressing against his face, and remembered that his captors had wrapped his head, leaving a gap in the bandages so that Ed could see. He hissed in pain as the woman's hand gently touched his injured shoulder. She took her hand away immediately.

"Sorry. I forgot about your shoulder for a minute."

"No, it's okay… Who are you?" Ed asked.

"You remember the woman you tried to help, just before they tried to kill you?" the woman asked.

"Yeah… are you…"

"I'm her sister. Thank you for saving her."

"Y-yeah. But you-"

"They don't know who I am, but I know what's going on. They're going to force you to do what they usually do themselves. Either that, or they're going to force you to watch."

"Probably make me watch…" Ed muttered. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Because I've been paying attention to this case. I know you've been trying to help the FBI find these guys. Besides, I didn't want your head to get any worse by letting it stay on the ground, and since there's nothing else here…"

"Oh…"

The woman began adjusting the bandages on Ed's neck. "I think you can get us out of here, too. I don't know why I think that, but I just… we're going to get away from here. I know we will."

Ed pulled his legs toward his chest. "I hope so. I don't want to leave Al on his own…"

"Is Al your brother?" the woman asked.

"Yeah. We don't have any other family, so it's just us…"

"You'll get to see him again."

Ed turned his head in an attempt to look at the woman's face, his eyes having adjusted to the minimal lighting in the room. "How can you be so confident?" he asked weakly.

The woman pushed his head back to its original position and put a comforting hand on Ed's upper arm, away from the wound in his shoulder. "Maybe because they haven't done anything to me yet, other than kidnap me and break my leg."

Ed tried to get up. "They…"

The woman gently pushed Ed back down. "Yes. That's how they prevented me from leaving."

At that moment, several more memories came rushing back to Ed, and things began to fall into place. "But… why would they put us in the same room? Usually they kept me somewhere else until it was time for…"

"I don't know. There's probably some reason for it, though. Maybe they're trying to force you to see someone you know die. Even if you only knew me for a few minutes."

Ed groaned as a fresh wave of pain coursed through his body. He felt some tears fall down his face before he heard another noise. Someone was at the door. Ed shifted again and felt his watch in his pocket. He smiled, despite the situation. Hopefully the FBI would find him before the dark-haired man could do anything to either of them.

But his hopes were dashed as the door opened, and he saw the two murderers walk in. Light flooded in through the door, and Ed blinked a few times as the dark-haired man walked up to him and roughly pulled him to his feet. The dark-haired man tore off the bandages, and Ed was grateful that the bleeding had stopped.

The dark-haired man looked Ed up and down before punching Ed hard in the face. Ed fell back in surprise and hit the wall, which knocked the wind out of him. The dark-haired man waited until he recovered before kicking Ed in the ribs. Ed cried out in pain, and he heard the woman shouting for the dark-haired man to stop beating Ed. Ed wanted to shout out as well, but the dark-haired man was beating him too much for Ed to get a chance to speak. He decided to concentrate on staying conscious.

Finally, the dark-haired man finished up by cutting the skin under Ed's right eye. "Walk over to the other end of the room and sit down," the man said.

Not wanting to anger the man, Ed did as he was told. As he sat down, Ed leaned against the wall, which caused the dark-haired man to grin. "Perfect." He stood back and allowed the light-haired man to transmute something to prevent Ed from moving. It wasn't much of a barricade, but considering how weak Ed was, it did the trick. Ed glared at the two men as the light-haired one stepped back, surveyed his work, and left the room. The dark-haired man smirked at Ed before turning to the woman.

"You know why we've been doing this, Fullmetal?"

Ed shook his head.

"It's because I want revenge. I know how much you hate seeing things like this. How much you hate being responsible for someone else's death. You weren't too happy when that photo-obsessed Lieutenant Colonel was killed, were you? And now you're responsible for the deaths of at least a dozen innocent women. How does that feel?"

It felt terrible. Ed wished he had never decided to go north. Now he was about to die, and someone else was about to be killed because of him. Ed hated himself more than he ever had before. "Why… why do you have to kill innocent people to get your point across?"

"Well, actually, my plan was only to find someone and just torture her for a while in front of you. But I'm not an alchemist, and the only way I could get my alchemist friend to agree with my plan was if I allowed him to kill people. And then, I realized that his way of doing things was really the best. It increases that look of sheer horror in your eyes. I very much like that look. Now then, Fullmetal, watch this," the man said as he pulled out a knife. Ed's eyes widened in horror, and he turned his head. He caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. The light-haired man was running out of the building.

-------------

Ed realized what that meant. If the light-haired man was running, then help must have arrived. Ed decided he needed to act and prevent the woman from getting hurt more than she already had been. The dark-haired man stared in surprise as Ed broke free and made his way to the door.

Ed's plan worked, and the dark-haired man followed him, leaving the woman behind in the room. At that moment, the dark-haired man slammed him into the wall, just as several FBI agents burst into the room.

Ed barely understood what was going on after that. All he understood was that the dark-haired man was threatening to kill him, which seemed strange because that was his goal in the first place. He also felt a pain in his neck, from where the dark-haired man was pressing his hand a little too strongly. He looked down, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar knife…

"_All right, brats, let's go over this again," a younger dark-haired man said, holding the knife in his hands. Ed curled his hands into fists. They had just been through hell, and now this guy was threatening them? He was in the military, for crying out loud!_

"_What did the Ishbalans say to you? Who gave them instructions? Answer the question or I'll have to _discipline_ you." _

_Ed didn't like the way he was looking at Winry. He kicked the man in the shin and punched him in the face, which caused the dark-haired man to drop the knife in surprise. "They didn't tell us anything, you jerk! Stop threatening us!" Ed shouted, which caused the other soldiers in the room to grab Ed by the arms and pull him into another room. Once they had shut the door, the dark-haired man spat on Ed._

"_You little brat. Never do that again."_

"_Why don't you make me?" Ed shot back defiantly, ignoring the soldier who now had a gun sticking into Ed's back._

_The dark-haired man smiled. "I like your attitude. How about you join the military in a few years and be my assistant, eh?"_

"_No."_

"_No?"_

"_You heard me. I'm _never_ joining the military. Ever."_

"_You care about your little friend over there, don't you? I rather like her as well. She's really fun to play with."_

"_You bastard! What the hell did you do to her?" Ed shouted._

"_Nothing, but you know what I would have liked to do to her?" the dark-haired man asked, retrieving his knife from a soldier who had picked it up. He walked up to Ed and held the tip under Ed's chin. "She would have been fun to torture. Too bad she's an Amestrian. If she were Ishbalan I'd have had my way with her the moment I came here."_

_Ed kicked out at the dark-haired man once again. "Why do you hate us so much? Is it because we made your job harder? Or is it because you get some sick kick out of screwing around with little kids?" Ed slumped in the grips of the soldiers who held his arms. "Isn't the military supposed to protect people?"_

"_Shut up!" the dark-haired man shouted, slapping Ed in the face just as some other soldiers, along with Pinako Rockbell and some high-ranking officer, entered the room._

_Needless to say, the dark-haired man was demoted and sent to the west._

Ed looked around again. Despite the intensity of his memory, only a few seconds had passed. Ed began to lose consciousness due to the lack of air. His eyes were half-closed when he remembered something else.

"_You see this woman, Fullmetal? She's pretty, isn't she? This is what I wanted to do to _her_ all those years ago."_

-------------

Don was keeping his eye on Ed as he tried to negotiate with the dark-haired man. He could tell that Ed was in pain, and if the dark-haired man didn't have a knife pressed to Ed's throat, Don would have shot the dark-haired man without giving it a second thought. But he couldn't. The dark-haired man was in a very good position when it came to negotiating. The light-haired man was nowhere to be found.

Don looked back at Ed. He could tell Ed was fading fast. The alchemist's eyes were already half-closed. Don turned his attention back to the dark-haired man, and only saw Ed's eyes widen out of the corner of his eye. He was rather surprised when Ed screamed, "You bastard!" and landed a punch on the man's face, sending the dark-haired man flying into the wall. The dark-haired man crumpled to the floor, obviously unconscious.

With that, the FBI agents rushed forward, and Don managed to grab Ed just as the alchemist was about to attack the dark-haired man again. Ed struggled to get away, pleading with Don to let him go, but Don somehow pulled Ed outside and pushed him against one of the cars with more force than he had planned on.

"Ed! He's unconscious, so stop freaking out, okay?"

Ed still tried to pull away, but Don had a firm grip on Ed's arm. "You're staying here until the ambulance arrives, got it?"

Ed brought his eyes up to stare into Don's, and Don was surprised to see so much raw anger showing within the gold. Within a few seconds, however, that rage turned into despair, and Ed slumped to the ground, tears falling from his eyes and mingling with the blood on Ed's face. Don pulled out a first-aid kit from the car and had Ed pull of his shirt. As he put pressure on Ed's shoulder to stop the bleeding, Don could tell Ed was at the breaking point. When Don heard the ambulance getting close, Don was relieved, but Ed didn't seem to hear him when he mentioned it.

Ed had pulled his knees up to his chest, and he was resting his arm on his knees as Don worked. He was staring off into space, and didn't move when Don began wiping off his face.

"Why did you stop me?" Ed whispered so that Don could barely hear it.

Don put some antiseptic on the cut on Ed's face as the ambulance drove up. He held out a hand to Ed and pulled the alchemist to his feet. "There's a lot of reasons, but it was mostly to prevent you from doing something you'd regret later. Besides, you're really not doing too well. I didn't want you to hurt yourself even more."

Before the ambulance drove off with both Ed and the woman inside, Ed looked straight into Don's eyes and said quietly, "I'm not that kind of person." Don knew exactly what Ed meant, and somehow, he knew that Ed meant it. And that look in Ed's eyes would never let him forget it.

--------------

"Hey, Al. How's he doing?"

"I don't know. He's still asleep."

Silence.

"Did he wake up at all?"

"No, not yet."

Ed made a fist out of his hand as he lay on the couch. Ever since he'd woken up, people would come in and ask his brother the same question, over and over again. It was starting to bother him, but he didn't want to let anyone know he was awake. He wasn't ready to talk to anybody yet.

The people continued to come in. Ed continued to lay on the couch, trying to reason with himself. He hadn't meant to hurt all those people. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his…

Despite his determination to keep people from trying to talk to him, Ed let out a small sob. He felt a cold, metal hand on his shoulder.

"Brother, are you okay?"

Ed was quiet. He didn't want to talk to Al just yet…

"Brother, I know you're awake. I've known for three hours."

Ed opened his eyes. Al knew…? "Al?"

Al nodded. "I know you won't be able to talk to them for a while, so I was giving you more time. Are… do you want to talk about what happened yet?"

Ed gripped the blanket that someone had draped over him. "I don't know, Al. It's all so…"

"Brother, don't say it if it's that hard. Don said he didn't want you to get too stressed out about what happened."

Ed closed his eyes again. "I don't know what to think anymore, Al. It's all so…"

"Brother, what happened with Winry?"

Ed snapped his eyes open and looked at Al. "How…"

"You said her name when you were sleeping."

Ed lowered his eyes. "Al, you remember that jerk who came the day after we were being held hostage in Resembool?"

"Yeah, he took you out of the room for a while, and then granny Pinako started shouting and when you came back, you were about to cry."

"You know why, Al?"

"Why you were so upset? I just figured it was because that guy was a total jerk."

"He was, and he… he threatened Winry. He said he wanted to do all these things to her, and…"

"Brother, why are you bringing this up?"

"That dark-haired man is the same guy. He… with all those innocent people, he was showing me… what he wanted to do to Winry. Al, it was-" Ed let out another sob and gripped the blanket even tighter.

Al was speechless. Ed could tell he was staring at him, waiting for Ed to say something else, but Ed didn't know what else to say, except, "I'm sorry, Al."

That seemed to make Al remember where he was. "No, brother, don't be sorry. You didn't mean to let this happen. That guy was just a stupid, insane bastard, and the important thing is that you helped the FBI find him. Now nobody else-"

"Al, what about the other guy? _He's_ the one who loves killing so much, and he's still out there. Besides, he can do alchemy…"

"Ed…"

"What about my arm?" Ed asked, unwilling to continue speaking about his experience.

"I think they said someone found it, but wouldn't it be better if you waited and gave yourself a chance to heal first?"

Ed nodded. "I guess you're right."

"How's your shoulder?"

"It's fine. It'll heal."

"Don said you got lucky. You were in the hospital for a while, and they found a piece of glass lodged in your skull. If it had gone any further in…" Al didn't need to say any more.

"Oh, so that's why I have such a bad headache," Ed remarked, trying to cheer Al up a bit. When Al didn't say anything, Ed closed his eyes again. "I'm going back to sleep."

"Okay. Do you want me to tell them about what happened?"

Ed thought about it for a while before nodding. "If you think it's important…"

"I do, brother. I also think it's important for you to get some rest, okay?"

Ed closed his eyes. "I really am sorry…"

"Brother, you're alive, and right now, that's all that matters."

Somehow, those words made Ed relax, and he was able to sleep peacefully for the rest of the afternoon.

------------------

The dark-haired man's name was Andrew. Don memorized the name as soon as the murderer said it. Then they moved on to the usual interrogation questions, but Andrew didn't seem to care that he faced a life sentence. Much to everyone's dismay, Andrew was one of those people who liked to brag about what they had done, and he seemed to have a lot to say about Ed. Don decided to listen to what Andrew had to say. It was more evidence in case Andrew decided for some reason to plead not guilty.

Andrew started off with the story of how he had first met Ed, and then how he had tried to trick Ed back in the western part of Amestris, and finally about how he had finally gotten revenge on the "little hypocrite" for all the humiliations Ed had caused him to suffer.

"You know why he's a hypocrite?" Andrew had asked. "He acted all high and mighty when he was a kid, claiming that he'd never work for the military, and then he became a state alchemist. He's too obsessed with that heap of metal to even remember his own words."

"What words?" Don had asked.

"He told me, _'I'm _never_ joining the military. Ever.'_ And look where he is now. He joined and became Mustang's pet. I don't understand what's so appealing about Mustang, but obviously he's managed to manipulate him plenty since then."

Don had frowned. Andrew had smiled menacingly before continuing. "You know why else he's a hypocrite?"

"No," Don had replied. "Why is that?" He hadn't been able to hide the anger in his voice, but Andrew hadn't noticed.

"He also asked me, '_Isn't the military supposed to protect people?'_ and ever since he joined, he's caused the death of a Lieutenant Colonel in Central. Not to mention what happened in Reole…"

"Reole?"

Andrew's grin had been very disturbing at this point in time. "Reole is a city in the far east of our country. That little alchemist boy went over there sometime in this past year and exposed the minister there as a fraud. As a result, riots broke out and most of the people died." Andrew had laughed. "That brat isn't worth anything."

Don had been rather shocked to hear this, but he hadn't said anything. Instead, he had left, having realized that he wouldn't get anything else from Andrew. Now he stood outside the room in which Ed was sleeping. He opened the door and noted that Ed had shifted positions a bit. Al was still sitting on the floor next to his brother.

Don sat down on a chair and nodded at Ed. "Did he wake up at all?"

Al nodded. "Yeah, for a little while. What did that guy say?"

Don glanced at Ed again. "Well, he went into detail about why exactly he decided to drag you two over here and force Ed to help him. He also said…" Don stopped, not knowing quite how to say it.

"He said something about Winry, right?" Al asked. "Brother told me about that."

Don nodded. "Yeah." He looked at Ed again, unsure of whether he should bring up what he had heard from Andrew about the teenager. After a moment, he decided he could wait. He wanted to ask Ed directly.

"Um, is there something else?" Al asked.

Don stood up. "Nah, that's it. I'll be back later to take Ed back to my place." He was about to walk to the door when he saw that Ed was staring blankly in his general direction. Not knowing what else to do, Don walked over to Ed.

"Hey, you feeling any better?"

Ed looked down to where Al was sitting. He looked miserable. "Not really."

Don sighed and shook his head. At least Ed was honest… "Well, we found your arm, so…"

Ed and Al exchanged glances before Ed halfway closed his eyes. "Al can help me put it back later."

"So you don't need anything special for it?"

"No. I've done it before."

"Okay." Don looked more closely at Ed's face. It seemed like Ed was about to burst into tears, and Don hoped fervently that Andrew had been lying about Ed's… less noble deeds. "Do you need anything right now?"

"No…"

"You sure?"

Ed nodded.

"Okay, then I'm going back to work. Let us know if there's something you need, got it?"

"Sure."

Don left the room and quietly shut the door behind him. He sighed as he went back to working at his desk. The next week was definitely going to be stressful.

-------------

The second half of this chapter was NOT fun to write. I had to redo it three times, and I'm still not completely happy with it. Oh well.


	10. Chapter 10

Don watched as Ed quietly struggled to pull off his shoes as he put something in the microwave for dinner. After a while, Ed succeeded and lay down, staring at the ceiling as he waited. Once the food was done, Don brought a plate over to Ed and watched Ed pick at the food for a while before setting it on the table with a sigh.

"Something wrong?" Don asked, setting his plate down as well.

Ed shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. Or, he would have if he had had his right arm. "Not hungry."

"Ed, you need to eat. You're in bad enough shape as it is."

"I know." Ed sounded defeated, but he didn't move.

Don studied Ed's face for a moment before standing up. "Do what you want, then. I'm going to make a call to someone."

Ed made a noise in acknowledgement of what Don had said and continued staring straight ahead. Don closed the door to his bedroom and called the office. He asked for Al. He waited for a moment before he heard Al's voice on the other side.

"Hello?"

"Al, hey, it's Don."

"Is something wrong?"

Don sat down on his bed. "Nothing serious, but… I need your help."

"With my brother?"

"Yeah. He's not eating."

Al was silent for a minute. "He isn't sick, is he?"

"No, I don't think so."

Al was quiet for a few seconds before speaking again. "Just let him be for now. Don't bother him about it. He'll eat when he's hungry enough. He always does. And if it's more than a couple of hours… threaten him with something. That's the only thing that seems to work when he's being stubborn like this."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Thanks."

After Don hung up, he went back out to the living room and sat next to Ed on the couch. Ed glanced at him before continuing to stare at the wall next to the TV. Don picked up a book and began reading, not fully concentrating on the words on the pages.

After a while, Ed looked back at the food, but he didn't eat it. Don resisted the temptation to say something and waited for a while longer. Eventually, Don got up and began fixing himself something to drink. While he was in the kitchen, he heard a noise, and looked over to see Ed finally eating something. He smiled as he went back out to the living room and sat down.

"How's your arm doing?" Don asked as Ed finished.

"Fine."

"Hey, uh…"

"Yeah?"

Don thought about what he wanted to ask and decided against it. He'd wait until Ed wasn't so emotionally unstable. "Never mind."

Ed went back to staring at the wall. It was quiet in the room for a while before Ed spoke, and when he did, Don couldn't hear him.

"What was that?" Don asked.

"I wonder how I'm going to get back…"

"Back… to your country?"

Ed nodded. "I don't know how to get there…"

Don looked at the wall as well. "I don't know either." It was quiet for a while. Then Don looked back at Ed. "I don't know how much you want to hear this, but you could always stay here."

"What do you mean?" Ed asked.

"We can help you guys out, you know. There's help available for someone in your… in your situation. And you're smart. You can…" Don trailed off when he saw Ed trembling.

"You're saying I should just sit around and wait for Al's body to starve to death?" Ed asked, anger evident in his voice.

Don was rather surprised at this statement. "What?"

"That's what'll happen if I don't get it back. I saw it. I saw Al but I couldn't bring his body back to the real world." Ed's hand was balled into a fist, and his eyes were shining with unshed tears. "He's starving. I can't leave him like that. I can't let my brother die if there's a chance that I can do something for him." Ed looked up at Don. "Could you?"

Don thought about Charlie, and knew the answer to Ed's question right away. "No. No, Ed, I could never do that. I'm sorry I even mentioned it."

Ed shook his head. "There's no way you could have known. It's something I try not to talk about."

"I can understand that," Don replied. Then he paused, and frowned. What Andrew had said earlier about Ed was bothering him, and he wondered… "Just how far would you go, though?" Don asked before he could stop himself.

Ed looked up at Don in surprise. "What are you saying?" Ed asked, eyeing Don suspiciously.

_Crud… oh well, might as well go with it now,_ Don thought. "I heard some interesting stories about you from Andrew. Something about a town called Reole?"

Ed blinked. "Oh, that. That guy _deserved_ to be exposed and taken down. He wanted to use the townspeople as some sort of fearless army."

Don raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Ed nodded. "After that I told Colonel Mustang about it, and he sent troops over to stop all the rioting."

_That's it? Jeez, I gotta stop letting myself jump to conclusions… I just wonder about…_

"What about the other thing he said?" Don asked.

"What other thing?"

"He mentioned a Lieutenant Colonel in Central…"

Ed tensed. "Why the hell would he know about that?" he muttered, more to himself than to Don.

"Ed, what happened?"

Ed frowned and turned his head away from Don. "What exactly did that bastard say?"

"He said you caused his death."

For a moment, there was silence. Then, "Yeah, that's true."

Don didn't know why he was so surprised. Sure, Ed had never shown any desire to be violent, but that didn't mean he was perfect either… "It is?"

"Not directly, but if it hadn't been for us, he wouldn't have found something out that he shouldn't have…"

Don stared at Ed. "Just what do you manage to get yourself into?"

"I don't _get_ myself into anything! Everything in my life has been one disappointment after another. Do you really think I wanted all this to happen?"

"No, Ed. I barely know anything about who you are, and I definitely don't know about this." Don was very calm as he spoke, but in reality, he wanted to see just how Ed would react. He felt terrible, but then again, some of the other agents in the FBI were questioning whether Ed was honest enough to be considered a witness. He wanted to prove that Ed was a good enough person.

Ed glared at Don. "It has to do with me trying to get Al's body back. So yes, I did end up going so far as to get someone killed because of my stupidity." Ed looked away and rested his face on his hand. "And nobody even bothered to tell me. Al and I had to find out the hard way. Since then, we've been trying to move forward without something like that ever happening again, but right now…" Ed narrowed his eyes, trying his hardest not to let himself cry. Upon seeing this, Don felt bad that he had asked about it.

"Was he a friend of yours?" Don asked.

Ed nodded. "Yeah. He'd go out of his way to help us, no matter what kinds of things he had to deal with at work. He always went out of his way to help people."

"Sounds like he was a really good guy."

"He was."

"Ed… I'm sorry for bringing all this up. I was just… sorry."

"It's fine."

Don stood up to go to bed, but he stopped halfway to the door and looked back at Ed. The alchemist was shaking, and Don could tell he was crying. He sighed and walked back over to the couch. Ed was staring at the floor. Don placed a hand underneath Ed's chin and gently pushed his face up so that Don could look him in the eyes. Ed's eyes looked haunted, and his face was tearstained.

"Ed, nobody blames you for what that guy did. You're as much of a victim as the women he killed."

Ed broke down completely after Don said that. He covered his face with his hand and began sobbing. Don found himself trying to comfort the boy, until finally Ed ran out of energy and fell asleep. Don moved Ed so that he was lying on his relatively uninjured right side and covered him with a blanket. Once he was sure Ed would be all right for the night, Don went into his bedroom and somehow managed to get to sleep.

----------------

Ed woke up to rain for about the tenth time since arriving in LA. He rolled over onto his back and looked around the room. He could hear Don in the kitchen, and Ed decided to go back to sleep. He turned back on his side and curled up as much as the couch would allow, hiding his head in his pillow.

"Sorry it's so cold in here, the heating isn't working right," Don said from the kitchen.

Ed gave a muffled grunt and pulled his blanket up to cover more of his head. He heard Don walk over and sit in the chair near Ed's feet.

"I got the night shift tonight, so we're not going anywhere today. Since we caught Andrew, you don't have to spend all your time under our custody anymore, so you're staying at Charlie's tonight. He'll pick you up before I go to work."

"Okay," Ed muttered into his pillow.

"Are you going to go back to sleep?"

"Dunno."

"How's your head? Does it hurt much right now?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want some painkillers?"

Ed thought about it for a minute. "Yeah." He heard Don get up and go into the kitchen. Ed slowly rolled onto his back and sat up. Don came back and handed Ed some aspirin, and then tried to hand him a glass of water. Ed stared at it for a moment before Don remembered that Ed was missing an arm and put the glass on the table.

After Ed took the painkillers, he sat and stared at the wall. After a while, he decided he needed to do something other than sit around and mope, so he got up and joined Don in the kitchen. It wasn't much of a change, but since he had spent the past forty-eight hours either in a hospital bed or on a couch, it was quite a change for Ed. Don looked up when Ed sat down and smiled at him.

"Feeling better today?"

"Not really," Ed admitted. "But I'm not really the kind of person who can sit around and do nothing all day."

"Then what do you want to do?"

Ed paused. "I don't know."

Don thought about it for a while. "Well, there's not much we can do outside today because of the rain, but there's a museum nearby if you're interested in that."

"I guess," Ed replied.

"Or we could just do something here if you don't want to go."

"I'll do whatever," Ed said.

Don looked outside again. It was still raining, but it wasn't too bad. "I'd say today would be a good day to go to the museum. Why don't you get dressed and we'll go?"

Ed nodded and went to get some clothes out of his suitcase. Surprisingly, his outfit was different from the usual, and Ed almost passed for a normal teenager when he got changed. Almost. He was still rather short.

"You ready?" Don asked as Ed grabbed a black jacket from his suitcase to put over his white shirt.

"Yeah."

"Great, then let's go."

Ed wasn't incredibly interested in what the museum had to offer, but it was a good distraction from what he had been going through. He wandered around, following Don and listening to what the older man had to say, and by the end of the day he had managed to learn two things: California used to be known for its mining and the name 'Los Angeles' came from a different language. Although, he could have figured the second one out on his own, but it didn't make much of a difference. At least the day hadn't been a total waste.

--------------

As they drove back to Don's place, Ed found himself thinking about what had happened again. Something about the situation was bothering him, and despite what everyone had told him, Ed still felt as if everything was his fault. He looked down at his right shoulder and let out a quiet sigh. He wondered if he would ever be able to shake the crushing feeling of guilt that had settled on him since he had regained most of his memories.

"Ed?"

Ed blinked at the sound of his name and looked over at Don.

"We're here. Is something wrong?"

Ed shook his head as he got out of the car. Don gave him a questioning look as they went inside, and Ed had the bad luck to be right underneath a gutter as it broke. He was immediately drenched, and he stood where he was in shock as water dripped from his coat.

Don stared at him from the doorway for a minute before snorting. Ed shot him a death glare as he walked inside. "Yeah, go ahead and laugh, you're next," Ed muttered under his breath as they went upstairs.

"What was that?" Don asked.

"Nothing." Ed could tell he was leaving a nice little stream everywhere he walked, and once they got into Don's apartment, Don shoved him into the bathroom. A set of dry clothes and a towel got thrown into the room seconds later.

Ed grumbled to himself as he pulled off his soaked clothing and dried himself off. He looked at his shoulder, and groaned when he saw that the bandage had been soaked. He went to clap his hands to use alchemy to get rid of the water, but then he remembered that he was missing an arm. He scowled and somehow managed to pull on his pants with his left hand before looking at the bandages again.

"Ed?" Don called from the other side of the door. "Do you need help or something?"

Ed frowned at this question, but he supposed he needed to answer. "Um, I think… yeah…" He opened the door, and Don understood the problem right away.

"Oh, that's not good… Here, sit down. I should have a first-aid kit somewhere around here…" Don trailed off as he began looking. Ed did as he was told, and after a few minutes, Don found what he was looking for and began peeling off the wet bandages. "Man, you really got soaked. Do you have any other shoes with your stuff?"

Ed shook his head. "I don't think so. I can't use alchemy on them, either, at least not without my arm."

Don paused. "You can't use anything else to do it?"

"Well, I guess I could draw a circle…"

"Why don't you do that? Charlie's coming in less than an hour, so we don't really have time to let them dry on their own."

Ed nodded.

Don finished up and shoved Ed's shirt into his one hand. "There you go. Try to dry off your hair, I don't want you getting sick too."

"What are you, my mom?" Ed muttered as Don left the room. Unfortunately for him, Don heard the comment.

"If I were your mom you'd be taking a bubble bath right now," Don remarked on his way to the kitchen. "Now get dressed before I have to do it for you."

Ed pulled on his t-shirt and checked to make sure he had put it on the right way before going out into the kitchen. He had tried to towel off his hair, but the attempts had been in vain, and now the towel was sitting on his head. Ed didn't think it was worth the effort.

Don set a cup of coffee in front of Ed and sat down across the table from him. Don took a sip of coffee before looking at the towel on Ed's head.

"You can't do anything right now, can you?" the man asked before standing up and fixing the towel so that it actually wrapped around Ed's hair. "Jeez, I really do feel like your mom right now."

"And all this time I thought you were a guy," Ed remarked as he sipped his coffee.

Don yanked on Ed's hair, causing Ed to nearly spill coffee all over himself. "Did I just hear a poor attempt at a joke?" Don asked.

Ed set the cup down to avoid spilling the contents. "Maybe."

"Does that mean you're feeling better?"

Ed stared at the cup on the table. "I don't really know right now. I just want to go home."

Don sighed. "I know you do. The thing is, that might not even be possible."

Ed shook his head. "There has to be a way. That light-haired guy has to have come here before, he's the one who would know…"

"But we don't know where he is."

"Then I'll find him."

"Ed…" Don shook his head, and Ed could see a small smile on his face. "Why don't you leave that up to us? We'll find him. I promise."

Ed smirked. "Fine."

"Wipe that grin off your face. You still have a lot to do, both as a witness and a victim."

Ed winced at the use of the word victim, and Don noticed. "Ed…"

"Hm?"

"Why did you flinch?"

Ed hesitated. "I…"

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and Ed breathed a sigh of relief as Don got up and opened it. Charlie came into the living room and immediately caught sight of Ed's towel.

"Did you just take a shower or something?"

"Something like that," Ed replied, not really wanting to go into detail.

"The gutter broke when he was underneath it," Don said. Ed glared at him, but didn't say anything. Charlie was about to laugh, but evidently he decided not to, which probably had something to do with the fact that Ed was giving him a warning glare.

"Okay, are you ready?"

"He needs to dry off his shoes first, unless you want to go barefoot," Don replied, looking at Ed as he finished his sentence.

Ed grunted in acknowledgement before going to his suitcase and a piece of chalk. He grabbed his shoes from the bathroom and began drawing an array on the top of his suitcase, ignoring Charlie, who was standing just behind him, watching intently.

"I thought you didn't have to draw a circle," Charlie remarked.

"I do when I only have one arm," Ed replied as he finished up.

"How often does that happen?" Charlie asked.

"Not very often, but when it does, I usually don't have time to draw an array," Ed replied as he placed the shoes and his hand on the circle. The usual flash of light appeared, and the shoes were dry.

"Then could you just have one already drawn somewhere?" Charlie asked.

Ed pulled his shoes on. "I could, but I never really needed it before." Ed paused and frowned. He had just realized that having one would have really come in handy during certain situations.

"It couldn't hurt, could it?"

"No, I guess not," Ed replied as he quickly packed his things and closed the suitcase. To his surprise, Don picked it up and carried it to the door.

"This is everything, right?" Don asked as he opened the door.

Ed nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."

"No problem. Just… be careful, okay?"

Ed nodded again. "I will be." He meant it. He didn't want to deal with any trouble this evening.

---------------

Ed stared at the gigantic spread of equations covering about five chalkboards in Charlie's garage. Charlie was leading him outside to play basketball, but he had to find a ball first, and hence he had to lead Ed through the garage.

"What is all this?" Ed asked when Charlie finally found the ball.

"I'm trying to work out an equation to find that one guy," Charlie replied before tossing the ball to Ed. Ed managed to catch it with his one arm, and he tossed it back to Charlie.

"You can do that?"

"I hope so."

"Me too," Ed muttered as they went outside.

They played for half an hour or so before Ed got tired and had to stop, and they sat around in the living room, watching whatever shows happened to be on TV, and talking about random stuff. After a while, Charlie went channel surfing, and Ed thought he had caught a glimpse of himself on a channel called Cartoon Network, but he dismissed it as a figment of his imagination.

"So you started studying alchemy around when you learned to read?" Charlie asked. They had settled on some show about doctors, and Ed got another feeling of déjà vu while watching it, but he ignored that feeling as well.

"Yeah. I think it was pretty surprising for our mom, though."

"Yeah, probably. There's no way I could have done that. I mean, I get the concepts, but it's different…"

"It's hard in general," Ed replied. "Most people didn't get to the point where we were at until they were adults."

"And then you managed to get into the military because of it."

Ed nodded.

"That's impressive."

"What you do is impressive, too," Ed replied. "It's different from anything else I've ever seen."

"You probably would see something similar if you hadn't had to leave school," Charlie remarked.

"Maybe," Ed replied. "But there wasn't much in the way of education back where I grew up. It was really small. I was in the same class as my brother, and we're a year apart in age."

"I graduated in the same class as my brother, too," Charlie remarked.

"How much older is he?" Ed asked.

"About five years."

"Well, Al was still below me, but it was just easier to have us all in the same class," Ed muttered darkly. "It's not like he's smarter than me or anything…"

"He isn't?" Charlie asked, amusement evident in his voice.

"We're about the same," Ed admitted. "I mean, he's better at some things, and I'm better at other things, but it pretty much evens out."

"What's he better at?"

"He… doesn't always act on impulse," Ed began. "And… he's nicer to people, and…" Ed frowned. "I don't know…"

"So, he's more of a thinker, and you're more of a doer."

Ed nodded. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"You definitely have your own style, though."

"Huh?"

Charlie pointed to his shirt, which was lying on the back of the couch. "That. It's ugly."

Ed looked at it, and sure enough, there was a weird demon-looking thing on the back. "Oh. Well, I'd change it back, but I'm kind of missing my arm right now…"

Charlie raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything. Ed was glad. He didn't feel like trying to draw out an array at the moment. One for evaporating water wasn't difficult at all, but something involving pigments… Ed just didn't have the energy at the moment. He was just grateful that Charlie hadn't really brought up the meeting with Andrew.

--------------

Don let out a sigh as he and his team returned to the office and sat down in the break room. They had been searching for the light-haired man for most of the evening, but there hadn't been any sign of him. Not only that, but someone was coming that evening to see how the case was coming. Considering that one of the killers was still at large, Don didn't think the meeting would end well.

After a while, they went over to their individual desks and sat down. Don was working on something on the computer when the one they were waiting for came into the room. He introduced himself as William Blake.

"You mean like the writer?" Don asked.

"Yep, exactly," Blake answered. "So, what's the status on the case? Do you have any more information on this mystery boy you found?"

Don nodded, and gave Blake a basic description of how Ed and Andrew had first met, excluding anything about the country of Amestris. Blake listened quietly for a while before interrupting.

"How is he reacting to what's happened?"

"Since we found him again, he's gone into a state of depression," Don answered. "He seems to think that everything that happened is because of him."

"What about the brother?"

"He hadn't said much either," Terry said.

Blake frowned. "And you said he knocked out the suspect, correct?"

"That's right."

Blake was still frowning. "I want to talk to him. Bring him in tomorrow."

"Yeah, okay."

"Agent Eppes, I'd like to talk to you in private."

At that, the other two left the room, leaving Don alone with Blake. Don gave him a questioning look and waited for him to speak.

"Who told you about Elric's past history with Andrew?"

"Both Andrew and Alphonse," Don replied.

"And you're positive that this story is the absolute truth?"

"Yes."

Blake was quiet for a moment. "You've been around the boy the most, right?"

Don nodded. "Yeah, due to extenuating circumstances-"

"I've heard all about that," Blake interrupted. "And it's good that you've been trying to help this kid emotionally, but I think it's beginning to affect your judgment."

"You want to take me off this case," Don replied.

"Yes. Also, my branch is going to have to take this boy into custody if we can't find his family. He's too young to be on his own, and there's something suspicious about him."

"What about his brother? Both of them have said they've been living on their own for about three years."

"It doesn't matter. We can't just let them go back to how they were living before. It's against the law."

"I understand that," Don replied. "I was just wondering if they were going to be separated."

"Not likely. I don't like the idea of forcing those two into a situation like that any more than you do. It's just better if they stay under our custody."

Don nodded. He could understand that, but part of him suspected Blake's motives. He had heard rumors about the man, and trusting him with Ed seemed like the worst possible thing to do at the moment.

"So, here's the plan. After you bring him in for questioning tomorrow, you'll be in charge of watching over this boy until this case is solved, but you won't be working on the case. As soon as the other suspect is brought in, you will bring in the boy and leave both him and his brother under my custody. Understood?"

Don nodded again. "Got it."

"Good. That will be all."

Don left the room and sat down at his desk with a sigh. Terry looked over at him curiously.

"I'm off the case," Don said. "Right now my job's limited to the role of 'babysitter.'"

"I figured something like that would happen," Terry replied. "You've been insanely protective when it comes to Ed, which is what he needs, but it's definitely affecting your judgment. Don't worry, though," Terry continued as Don looked up at her. "Somehow, I'm sure we'll make it without you."

Don smiled. "Thanks."

----------------

Charlie quietly shut the door to the guest room before going into the living room and practically collapsing on the couch. Alan looked up from his book and gave Charlie a curious look. "Something wrong?"

"No, just tired," Charlie replied. "I had a pretty long day at work today."

"You should go to bed, then. It's getting pretty late anyway."

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, good idea. Good night." He got up and checked on Ed one last time before getting ready for bed.

Sometime during the night, Charlie woke up and went to the kitchen to get some water. On his way back, he heard a noise coming from the guest room, and he went to investigate. Ed was asleep, but he was curled into the fetal position and whimpering. Charlie placed a hand on Ed's arm and shook him gently, but Ed tensed under the touch.

"Winry…"

Charlie frowned as Ed muttered the name. _Is he dreaming?_ he thought as Ed let out another whimper.

"I'm sorry, Winry…" Ed buried his head in the pillow.

Charlie decided he needed to snap Ed out of it. He shook Ed again, this time with slightly more force, but Ed let out a muffled scream. It wasn't loud by any means, but it was definitely startling.

"Ed, wake up!" Charlie urged in a whisper. "Ed! Hey!"

Ed tried to break away from Charlie's grip, and Charlie said his name more urgently until Ed's eyes snapped open and he sat up. He was breathing heavily.

"Ed, it's okay, you're safe," Charlie said, still holding Ed's arm. "It was just a dream."

Ed stared at Charlie for a full thirty seconds before relaxing. Not knowing what else to do, Charlie pulled Ed into a hug. Ed began to cry, and Charlie continued to hold on, marveling at how much Ed had changed since he had been kidnapped. He felt anger for Andrew, even though he barely knew what had happened when Ed had been trapped with him.

After a minute or so, Ed slumped in Charlie's grip, and Charlie gently set him back down. The alchemist's face was tearstained, but his body was relaxed. Ed opened his eyes and looked up at Charlie.

"You okay now?" Charlie asked.

"My head hurts…"

Charlie saw the bottle of painkillers Ed had been given and took a couple out. He got a glass of water and handed Ed the medication before handing him the glass. After that was finished, Charlie finally got Ed to go back to sleep. He fixed the now-tangled blankets before going back to his room for the night.

--------------

If anyone can guess what show gives Ed déjà vu and why it gives him said feeling, I will give you a cookie. And no, the answer can not be found on my profile, because… no, it cannot. :P


	11. Chapter 11

And now for the answer to my random challenge from the last chapter: The doctor show that gave Ed déjà vu is House M.D., and it gave him déjà vu because I have a House/FMA crossover that I have yet to post here for some unknown reason… So the closest person would be… whoever mentioned House and a fanfic in the same sentence… I would give a name but right now my internet's down and I really should be going to bed…

And yes, he did see himself on FMA on Cartoon Network. XD

----------------

For some reason, Ed was very tired when he woke up the next morning. The only thing that had prevented him from falling back asleep was a dull throbbing that seemed to be everywhere in his upper body. He sighed, which caused an outburst of pain, and pulled on some clothes before going to the kitchen.

Charlie and Alan were already awake, and both looked at Ed with concern as he sat down at the table. Not quite knowing what was wrong, Ed waited for someone to say something.

"Are you feeling any better?" Charlie asked as he gave Ed a Pop-Tart.

Ed gave Charlie a questioning look. "I… guess…" Of course, he hadn't slept well, and he'd had some bad dreams, but he couldn't remember what they were about.

Charlie paused, and exchanged a glance with his father. Ed watched them both with raised eyebrows, not quite understanding what was going on. After a moment, Charlie responded. "Good…"

Something seemed fishy. Had something happened during the night that he couldn't remember? He decided to ask Charlie about it later.

After a while, Ed looked at Charlie's shirt. It was a black shirt, and it had writing on it. Ed read what it said and frowned as he tried to make sense of it.

At some point in time, Alan left the house, leaving Ed to stare at Charlie's shirt on his own, and after a while, Charlie decided to ask what Ed was doing.

"I don't get it…"

"What, the binary thing?"

Ed nodded.

"Then you'd be one of those who doesn't understand binary."

"Well, yeah, considering I've never heard of it before… What exactly is it?"

"It's a… number thing."

"I figured that much out," Ed muttered. "What kind of number thing?"

"Um…"

Ed smirked. "You don't know, do you?"

Charlie smirked back. "Oh, I know, all right. I'm just not going to tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because you can figure it out on your own."

Ed frowned. "You don't know yourself, do you?"

"If I didn't know, then why would I be wearing this?"

"How should I know?" Ed glared at Charlie for a minute before he realized something. "It has to do with computers, doesn't it?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"What happened last night?" Ed asked suddenly, deciding he'd catch Charlie off guard later.

"You don't remember?" Charlie asked.

"Obviously not, otherwise I wouldn't be asking."

It was quiet in the room for a while before Charlie spoke up. "You had a nightmare."

"Yeah, I figured that much out," Ed muttered.

"It seemed pretty bad. You were talking in your sleep, and at one point you screamed."

Ed's face turned slightly red at this moment. How embarrassing…

"When you finally woke up, you started crying, and-"

"Okay, I get it. That's why you were worried?"

"Well, yeah. I thought you were going to hurt yourself."

Ed looked at his hands. "Sorry…"

"You don't need to apologize, Ed. You've had a rough time."

Ed made a small noise of acknowledgement before the room became very quiet. Again. Then, after a while, Ed looked back up at Charlie.

"It's a code, isn't it?"

"What?" Charlie seemed slightly taken aback at Ed's question.

"Binary. 10 means 2 in this case, right?"

"Um… yeah."

"Why is that?"

"I'm not telling you! You have to figure it out on your own."

"Why?" Ed asked. He could tell Charlie was enjoying this.

"Because you really should be able to. Just think about it for a while."

Ed shot Charlie a death glare and tried to think.

"Don said he'd pick you up at 8. It's 7:45 now, so you should get ready."

Ed nodded and went to the guest room to pack up his things. There wasn't much to do, since he hadn't really gotten anything out, so he was done in about five minutes, and he went back to the living room, thinking about Charlie's challenge as he walked.

_Binary… bi would be two, and ten is two times five, which means… maybe binary involves multiples of five? No, then there would be some form of five in the word binary, unless it's a misnomer, but I doubt that's the case…_

"Ed?"

"Be quiet, I'm trying to think," Ed snapped, and went back to his little corner of his brain. Charlie watched with an amused expression, but Ed didn't see it.

_Bi… maybe it isn't ten, maybe it's one zero… but then how would that connect to…_

"Seriously, if it's bugging you this much I can tell you-"

"One and zero are two different numbers."

Charlie blinked. "Um, yeah, I'm glad you know that much…"

Ed looked up at Charlie. "are one and zero the only numbers involved in binary?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's a numerical system in base two, which means… yeah, so one and zero are the only numbers in it. That was fast…"

Ed smirked. "You sound disappointed."

Charlie laughed and shook his head. "Not at all. Although I will admit I'm jealous. I didn't really tell you all that much about it."

"That's what you get for challenging me."

There was a knock on the door, and Ed stayed where he was as Charlie spoke with Don by the front door. He figured they were probably talking about him, and he somehow resisted the urge to listen in on their conversation.

--------

"So, anything interesting happen last night?" Don asked.

Charlie shrugged. "He was pretty quiet for the most part, but there was some trouble last night."

"What happened?"

"Bad dream. I woke him up and he calmed down after a minute, but it seemed pretty bad. He didn't remember it this morning, though."

Don cast a glance over at where Ed was standing. "That might be a good thing."

"He surprised me this morning, though."

"Really? How so?"

As Charlie recounted the binary thing, Don noticed that Ed seemed slightly more upbeat than usual. Don smiled a little when Charlie finished the story before sobering.

"I'm off the case."

"What?"

Don sighed. "Yeah, someone from a different, higher-ranking division doesn't think I should be investigating this anymore. All I have to do right now is make sure Ed doesn't get himself killed."

Charlie nodded. "Right."

Don sighed. "So right now I need to bring Ed to talk with Blake."

"Blake?"

"The guy who took me off the case. I don't know how much I trust him, though. He wants Ed and Al in his custody after we find the other suspect."

"Why?"

"I don't know the exact reason, but it's probably because he's heard about some of the things Ed's done since we found him."

Charlie glanced at Ed. "Like alchemy?"

"Yeah, although I don't know for sure. Anyway, we'd better get going. Ed?"

Ed looked over and walked up to the two with an emotionless face. Not a good sign, but better than how Ed had looked for most of the past few days.

"Come on, it's time to go."

Ed nodded and grabbed his suitcase before looking over at Charlie and giving a brief thanks before walking with Don to the car.

----------------

"Why do I have to talk to this guy?" Ed asked after Don told him about Blake.

"Because he requested it. Don't worry, it probably won't be anything too big," Don replied.

"But…" Ed stopped and leaned against the car door, staring out the window. "I don't know if I can…"

"I know it'll be hard for you, but you have to do it. If it gets too hard, then I'm sure he'll give you a break." Don paused. "And even if he doesn't, you could probably make a case for emotional damages."

Ed raised an eyebrow. "You can do that?"

"People sue for just about everything these days. Seriously, don't worry about it."

Ed went back to staring out the window. "I can't help it. I don't want to think about what happened…"

"You're going to have to give a full account of events sooner or later. It'll be hard, but you have to do it."

Ed sighed. Don pulled into his parking spot and turned off the car before turning to face him. "Remember, there's a chance that he's heard about what you're capable of, so avoid mentioning it at all costs, got it?"

Ed nodded. "Right."

-----------------

As Ed waited in a small interrogation room, he stuck his hand in his pocket and fingered his watch. He was still missing his arm, but that didn't matter to him. All he wanted was to be done with this stupid 'talk.'

Finally, Blake entered the room and sat down at the opposite side of the table from Ed. He took a moment to scrutinize the alchemist before holding out his right hand. "I'm William Blake."

Ed frowned and held out his hand for Blake to shake. It was an awkward moment, but luckily it soon passed. Blake soon let go and rested his hands on the table.

"I have some questions for you, Edward. I'd appreciate it if you could be honest with me, okay?"

Ed nodded. He could easily lie about alchemy, and the rest… he just hoped he could control his emotions.

"Okay, let's begin. You've said you haven't seen your father in over ten years, correct?"

"Something like that," Ed replied.

"Why did he leave?"

"How should I know? He just walked out the door one day and I didn't see him for a long time after that."

"So you have seen him since."

"Once, for like a day, and then he left again. Why does it matter?"

"That's classified. What did he do for a living?"

Ed shrugged. "I don't know."

"Did your mother work?"

Ed shrugged again. "We had a garden next to our house, and I think that man left some money, but she was always around…"

"How did she die?"

Ed decided he didn't like this man. "She was sick."

"How did you lose your arm and leg?"

Ed glared at Blake. "Why do you care?"

"That's classified."

"Why?"

"Because you shouldn't know at this point in time. Can you just answer the question?"

"Some stupid ritual," Ed said before he could stop himself. He paused for a moment before continuing. "We… heard about this thing we could do, and we tried it to see if we could get our mom back, but it was doomed to fail, and…"

"But how would that lead to the loss of your limbs?"

Ed _really_ wanted to punch Blake's face in. "We don't have a home anymore because of what happened."

"Okay…"

"We burned it down."

"So you lost your limbs in the fire?"

Ed didn't move, choosing instead to stare into Blake's eyes. After Blake seemed to get the point and pulled out a paper, Ed felt a smug feeling creep inside of him. He was getting good at telling the truth and yet misleading people. However, that feeling left when Blake handed Ed a form.

"I need you to fill this out as best you can and then sign at the bottom."

Ed looked at the form carefully. "What is it?"

"Other than the ones for this case, you don't have any files on record anywhere in the country. This is a special one for people in your case."

Ed didn't move. Blake sighed.

"Go ahead and read it. I'm not in any hurry."

Ed carefully read the form and paused when he came to the end. "What does it mean at the end?" he asked.

"It means that until we can either get you into a foster family or you become a legal adult, you're under the government's custody."

Ed frowned. "Which means…?"

"We'll be the ones watching over you and taking care of your basic needs."

"What about my brother?"

"Don't worry about that. You two won't be separated."

"And how do I know you aren't lying?"

Blake sighed and showed Ed another piece of paper. Ed read it over and gave it back to Blake, satisfied that the man wasn't lying.

"Okay, go ahead and fill it out," Blake said after a moment, gesturing to the form.

Ed eyed Blake suspiciously. "What else do you want?" he asked.

"I have some more questions for you involving this case, particularly what happened when you were captured."

Ed cringed. He didn't want to answer those.

"Tell me what happened." Blake placed a recorder of some sort on the table. Ed recognized it from seeing a similar one a while ago when he was sharing some of his memories. "This will serve as evidence when we take the suspects to court."

"Suspects?" Ed asked. "You mean they might not get…"

"There's a chance of that, I'm afraid."

Ed felt sick. He didn't want that…

"Tell me what happened." Blake's face and eyes were completely serious. Ed tried to ignore the feeling in his stomach and shakily began the sequence of events that had led to his mortifying revelation.

"We… Don and I were driving back here, and someone jumped in front of the car… I think it was one of _them_, and then the car stopped and someone crashed into us from behind."

"Which is how your head and shoulder were injured," Blake stated.

Ed nodded. "Then… Don went to go help the other people… they were in a lot worse shape than me, but then when he was gone, the light-haired man wrenched open the door and grabbed me."

"Where did he take you?"

Ed grabbed his stomach with his hand and gripped it as he continued to speak. "Through… I guess it was a sewer, because it smelled awful. I don't really remember much of what happened then, but then he brought me somewhere else…"

"Somewhere above ground."

Ed nodded. "Yeah. And then the other one was there…" Ed took a deep breath. "He had a disturbing look on his face, like he was happy to see me like that…"

"What did they do?"

"They… treated my wounds…"

"They did?"

Ed nodded. "They said they wanted me alive for something…"

"And yet when they found you there were no bandages on your body, and you were bleeding profusely."

Ed took another shaky breath. "I think… well, I don't really know, but it seems like they wanted to kill me after what they did next…"

"Which was?"

Ed was quiet for at least a minute before he spoke again. "I was unconscious for a while, and when I woke up, I was in this room with this woman…"

"The one they found with a broken leg."

Ed nodded again. "And she said…" Ed clutched his stomach even harder and was quiet for a while. "Do I really have to say everything?"

"Is there a reason why you can't?" Blake asked, a small amount of concern in his voice.

"I feel sick…"

Blake sighed. "Okay, we'll take a break. Do you want some water?"

Ed gave a slight nod. Blake stood up and walked to the door. Once he left the room, Ed let out a small sigh of relief before tensing. The beginning hadn't been too hard to recount, but when he thought about the woman, his mind associated her with Winry against his will, and he didn't want to think about Winry being…

Ed let out a quiet sob and leaned his head against the table. It was cool, and felt good against his skin. Ed began taking deep, unsteady breaths. He didn't like the way he felt at the moment. It was too much for him to handle…

The door opened, and Ed was vaguely aware of footsteps. He ignored them. If Blake wanted to know what happened, then he'd just have to wait. He couldn't continue this.

"We can continue this tomorrow if that's easier," came Blake's voice. Ed pushed himself up and nodded. Right now he really wanted to be with his brother…

---------------

Al carefully placed the damp cloth on his brother's forehead and pulled the blanket over his body before sitting down on the floor beside him. Don watched with some interest before sitting down and picking up the book he'd been reading. He had brought the brothers home earlier in the day, and Al had been the one to realize just how bad Ed was feeling.

Of course, Don would have figured it out if he hadn't been busy listening to Blake's ridiculous instructions on how to deal with Ed's inability to recall the events and then driving the car while Ed and Al sat in the back. And of course, Blake just _had_ to repeat facts that Don already knew about psychology, as if he'd never dealt with a distraught victim before. Meanwhile, Al had been waiting with his brother, holding Ed by the arm to prevent him from collapsing on the cold, rain-soaked pavement that separated the office from Don's car.

"You know, you don't have to sit on the floor," Don said after a moment.

"It wouldn't make much of a difference," Al replied. "Besides, this way I can keep a closer eye on him. To get sick at a time like this…"

"It's probably because of the stress," Don replied. "It happens a lot when someone's been through something traumatizing."

"But this…" Al trailed off and looked at his brother's head and arm. "This is the first time it's been so bad…"

"Well, he's not in the best physical shape either, so with both of those, not to mention the fact that Blake pushed it so much…" Don stood up and walked around to the other side of the couch. He looked down at Ed's troubled expression before sighing. "And… I might have had something to do with it. I brought up some things that I shouldn't have."

Al seemed to want to ask Don what he meant, but he didn't. Don looked at Ed for another moment before going into the kitchen and getting something to eat. "Anyway, I can't stop Blake from talking with Ed, so is there anything that'll make it easier for him?"

Al looked at Ed for a while. "Not really, unless for some reason he won't care that I'm in the room…"

Don sighed. "Oh well. I guess we'll just hope it all works out."

Al nodded. "Yeah…"

At that moment, Ed began to move around in his sleep. Al gently placed a hand on Ed's lower arm, but it did little to calm the small boy. Don moved up to the couch and looked uncertainly at Ed. "Should we wake him up?"

Al nodded and gently shook his brother, but Ed tensed at the touch and tried to pull away. Al continued shaking Ed, calling out to him and even pleading for him to wake up, but several minutes passed, and Ed was practically flailing in his sleep. They continued to try to wake him up. He screamed.

--------------

Ugh… relatively short chapter this time, and to be honest, it's getting hard for me to get into this story at the moment, so it's going to be slow for a while update-wise… Just to let ya know. I promise I won't let five months go by like I have with some of my other stories… heh…


	12. Chapter 12

Ugh, this part was so annoying… But it's done, so here ya go.

_I'm sorry, Winry…_

_He saw her, standing in front of him, asking… no, _pleading_ for his help with her eyes. He wished he could do something, but there was something holding him back. He looked down. There were large hands wrapped around his arm and chest._

_He looked up again. There, right in front of his eyes, was the dark-haired man, holding a knife up to Winry's throat. He struggled to break away, but he couldn't. He watched in horror as Andrew cut through the skin, and then-_

_He couldn't bear it. He screamed._

"Brother!"

_He continued to struggle, but now the one holding him was pushing him down._

"Ed, wake up!"

_Those voices didn't sound threatening, so why was he so afraid…?_

Ed somehow managed to get himself to stop struggling as he slowly came to his senses. He blinked a few times as he looked up at his brother, who was kneeling on the ground, his hands gently resting on Ed's arm and shoulder.

"Al…?"

"Are you okay?"

Ed nodded and slowly moved to a sitting position, rubbing his eyes as he did so. "Yeah."

"You sure?" Don asked. Ed could tell he was just as worried as Al, and he felt a pang of guilt.

"I'm fine." Honestly, he was anything but fine, but he didn't want everyone worrying about him, so he stuck with the lie he had uttered countless times before. He just hoped it would convince Don, because he knew for sure that it would never be enough to convince Al.

It wasn't enough. Ed could tell when he glanced at Don's face. Strangely enough, however, Don didn't push the issue. He walked over to his bedroom and looked back at Ed.

"I'll be in here if you need me."

As the door closed, Ed sighed and lay back on the couch. "This is so aggravating…"

"Brother."

"Hm?" Ed looked up at Al.

"It was about Winry, right?"

Ed flinched at the words and rolled over on his side so that he faced the couch. "I can't stand seeing her like that…"

"She wasn't hurt, brother. That man would have made sure you would have seen it if she had been."

"I know, but… It could have been her. That bastard was using-" Ed stopped. He didn't know how to say it, and part of him didn't want to admit it. No, there wasn't anything to admit, but oh well. That wasn't important at the moment.

"I understand, brother." Ed felt Al put something cool on his forehead. It felt good against his skin. Ed reached his own hand up to his forehead, being careful not to strain his injured shoulder, and touched the part that wasn't covered by the cloth. His forehead felt unnaturally warm, and he dropped his hand with a sigh.

"This had better not have anything to do with that stupid meeting with that guy," Ed muttered.

"It's probably more than that," Al replied. "I mean, that guy was… How could he do that? Why would anyone _want_ to hurt Winry…?"

"I don't know, Al. I just…" Ed stopped. "He's a sick bastard. I shouldn't have let my guard down on the train."

"And I should have paid more attention to where you were," Al said.

"Al… she can't ever find out about this, okay? She's had enough to deal with lately."

"Okay, brother. I won't tell her."

Ed breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes. "I don't think she'd want to be near me if she ever found out…"

"Brother, don't say that! None of this is your fault!"

Ed took a deep breath and tried to prevent himself from saying anything. Right now all he wanted was to sleep, and hope that things would turn out better soon.

----------------

Don was quiet as he thought about Ed's words. Despite his resolve to give the brothers some privacy, he couldn't help but listen to their conversation. Besides, it hadn't been hard to hear. His walls weren't exactly soundproofed…

But what he heard confirmed his suspicions. Ed was still convinced that he was responsible for Andrew's actions, and he was afraid that others blamed him as well, especially Winry. Something had to be done about it, but Don didn't know what.

A few minutes after Ed had gone silent, Don exited his room and went into the kitchen. Ed was asleep.

"And?" Don asked as he got some food out for himself.

"He still thinks it's his fault," Al replied.

Don sighed. "He's really taking this hard, isn't he?"

"It's what usually happens," Al replied. "He's always afraid that he's at fault, even though he isn't the only one…"

"Well, I'd be willing to take him to a psychologist for help, but that definitely wouldn't end well…"

Al laughed. "No, but it would definitely be entertaining."

"It sure would be," Don mused, watching as Ed buried his head into the couch. "I just wonder how we're going to get him through tomorrow. Today was bad enough…"

The two were quiet for a while, each trying to come up with a way to help Ed. After a while, Al spoke up.

"How would Blake respond to having an empty, lifeless suit of armor sitting in the room?"

-------------

Ed waited quietly in the interrogation room for Blake to arrive, occasionally glancing at his brother, who was currently sitting in the corner. Al's helmet was strategically placed on the floor next to his body, so that Blake would be able to see that there was nothing inside. Ed had also told Al what to expect when he told his story, so that Al wouldn't move suddenly out of surprise or anything with Blake in the room. He just hoped that neither of them would ruin it. Ed really didn't want to do this alone.

Finally, Blake came into the room, looked with interest at the armor for a minute, and sat down. "Are you feeling better today?"

Ed shook his head. How he felt today was about the same as he'd felt yesterday right after talking with Blake, except for the slight relief that came from having Al in the room. Don had given Blake a brief summary of the situation, excluding the fact that Al couldn't ever leave the armor, even when the so-called technology that allowed him to maneuver was 'off.'

"Can you do this?" was Blake's next question. Ed gave a small, barely visible nod. He just hoped that Blake wouldn't see it.

"Okay, if you're sure…" Blake pressed a button on the recorder on the table and looked at Ed expectantly. "So you were talking about that woman, correct?"

Ed immediately felt sick to his stomach as he thought back on the events in that room. Then he glanced at Al and swallowed before nodding and continuing with his story. It took a long time, and Ed had to stop often to prevent a total breakdown, but he made it to when the FBI came into the building.

"And what made you decide to punch this man right then? Something must have driven you over the edge, right?"

Ed nodded. "Back… about seven or eight years ago, I met him…"

"He worked for some military that you had to live with, correct?"

Ed nodded again. "Yeah. He wanted us to give him information we didn't have about these people…"

"The ones who had held you and your brother hostage."

"Along with our childhood friend. And Andrew… he started threatening us, even though we didn't know anything and we were still getting over what had happened, so I attacked him. Then he brought me into another room and told me that he wanted to do… terrible things to Winry. He started treating me roughly after that and someone walked in on him slapping me in the face. I heard later that he had been demoted because of that."

"So this is what made you attack him?"

"There's more to it. During one of the earlier… murders, he said… that what he was doing was what he wanted to do to Winry…" Ed clutched at his stomach again. He was almost at the breaking point.

"So it was out of anger at what he had done to those women because of this incident from when you were seven or eight."

Ed nodded.

"But I saw a copy of that picture from when you were younger. Your friend has blonde hair, and all of the victims have light brown hair. Care to explain why he chose that hair color?"

Ed shook his head. "I don't know."

"How about why he chose to bring you to LA to do all this? He could have easily done it where you live."

"I don't know anything about that!" Ed snapped. Right now Blake was really pissing him off, and Ed preferred rage to the depression he'd been feeling lately. "Why do you have to ask questions I can't answer? You're just like-" Ed cut himself off. He didn't want to associate the man in front of him with someone like Andrew. It just didn't…

"Just like the suspect? You do realize that I'm not obsessed with the idea of torturing people for information, right?"

Ed suddenly felt guilty. "I didn't… I didn't mean that…"

"I understand. You're still frustrated that you let this happen."

Ed's head jerked up when he heard that. He stared at Blake with anger and guilt in his eyes. It was true that this was partially his fault, but did Blake really have to say it like that? Everyone else had been saying it wasn't his fault, but now…

"That's it. I'm sorry, but this was necessary, especially for when this goes to court." And with that, Blake left the room, leaving Ed to wonder if he'd ever feel happy again.

-------------

Charlie was bored. Classes were over for the day, and he was waiting for a student to show up to talk with him about something he'd talked about in one of his classes. He didn't have much to do for work, so he spent his time at the chalkboard. Doodling.

Granted, he didn't do this very often, but these were extenuating circumstances. Charlie continued to doodle until he drew something that reminded him of the shirt that Ed had transmuted.

"Is this your new way of working out formulas?" The voice was a familiar one, and Charlie looked back to see Dr. Larry Fleinhardt standing in the doorway.

"Oh, hey. I thought you were heading home already."

"I was, but then I heard some noise in here and I got curious. You also said you had a story about your mysterious boy and the wonders of binary."

Charlie blinked. "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot."

"It's that forgettable? Weren't you proclaiming this morning that you were amazed by what happened?"

"Hey, I've been busy," Charlie replied. The truth was, the binary incident didn't seem quite as memorable as other things Ed had shown himself to be capable of, but he didn't want to go into detail about that, even with his good friend. He didn't really want to try to explain the concept of alchemy actually being real to anyone else.

"Yeah, so I've heard. Well?"

"Well what?"

"Let's hear it."

"Oh." Charlie put down the chalk and began relating the story of Ed's relatively quick discovery to Larry, who seemed impressed.

"He sounds like someone I know," Larry said, giving Charlie a meaningful look. "What did you say he studies again?"

"Alche- chemistry."

Larry raised an eyebrow. "What was that first word again?"

Charlie thought about it for a while. "He's interested in alchemy, but it's not really…"

"Ah, alchemy. If we had that nowadays life would be so much different… but of course that's impossible."

Charlie shrugged. "I don't know, I think he might be on to something," he said with a bemused smile.

"Oh? Is there something you're not telling me?" Larry's tone was friendly and accusing at the same time.

Charlie laughed. "Yeah, actually, Ed's an alchemic prodigy, and he transmuted one of my shirts. Want to see it?"

To Charlie's surprise, Larry seemed pensive instead of amused. "You know, maybe there is something to it. It's probably completely different from all the stories, but who knows? Humans have already done so many things we once thought were impossible, so why not this too?"

For a brief moment, Charlie considered telling Larry the truth, but he didn't. He knew what would happen to Ed if people found out about his abilities, and he'd seen what had happened to his state of mind after his encounter with Andrew. No, Ed didn't need people asking questions. He just needed people who cared.

----------------

Ed stared at the wall opposite from him as he waited for his chance to leave. Don had been asked to help with some fieldwork, so Ed was stuck waiting for him. _And what better place to wait than in the waiting room?_ Ed thought sarcastically as someone walked by. Al was sitting next to him.

"Brother?"

"Hm?"

"When are you going to get your arm back?"

"I don't know, Al. Soon, I guess…"

"How soon?"

Ed shrugged. "I guess whenever it's most convenient for us. Why?"

"I don't know, I was just curious…"

Ed gave Al a small smile. "You're just tired of helping me out all the time, aren't you?"

"Yep."

Ed went back to staring at the wall. "Maybe tonight, then…"

"You seem tired, brother. Maybe you should take a nap while we're waiting."

Ed covered his mouth as he yawned and leaned against Al. "Yeah…"

He was almost asleep when he heard footsteps that stopped right in front of him. Ed cracked one eye open ever so slightly and looked to see who it was. Then he closed it again and refused to move. If Blake wanted to talk to him, he'd just have to wait…

"Are you Alphonse?"

Ed felt the armor he was leaning against move slightly before his brother gave his answer. "Yeah."

"William Blake. Nice to meet you."

More movement. "Sure…"

"I wanted to apologize to your brother, but it doesn't seem like now is a good time."

"No, he's been really tired lately."

Silence. Ed almost looked up at Blake, but he resisted the urge. Then he heard Blake's voice again. "That's understandable. Would you mind telling him for me?"

"Not at all."

"Thank you."

Footsteps, then the sound of a door opening and closing. Ed opened one eye and checked the room before relaxing.

"He doesn't seem that bad, brother," Al commented, replacing the arm that he had placed around Ed's shoulders.

"He's weird like that," Ed muttered. "He's a jerk, but at the same time he isn't. I can't stand it. It's too confusing."

"Well, you should try to get some sleep, brother. It might help."

Ed nodded and breathed deeply, calming himself down a bit before finally dropping off to sleep.

----------------

When Don finally returned, he saw Ed sleeping next to his brother in the waiting room. He was about to wake Ed up and head out with the brothers when Blake approached him.

"Hey, how'd it go?" Blake asked.

"We didn't get anything," Don replied.

"Too bad. Hey, there's something I want to talk to you about."

Don glanced at Ed and Al again and nodded. "Sure."

They went to another room for privacy before Blake said what was on his mind. He got straight to the point. "Have you considered putting the kid into therapy?"

Don shook his head. "No, not yet."

"You should. It's good that he's functioning as well as he is, but this was probably one of the most traumatic experiences of his life."

_Not really_, Don thought as Blake continued. "He needs help."

"What about his brother?"

"His brother isn't a professional. He probably hasn't dealt with something this bad before, either."

_You'd be surprised…_ "Okay. I'll find someone," Don said as he made to leave the room.

"What about Dr. Russo? He's already familiar with Edward, right?"

Don shook his head. "No, that would probably end in tragedy." And with that, Don left the room, leaving a very confused Blake behind.

---------------

Ed sat quietly on the couch as he inspected his limb. He wasn't positive he knew what he was doing, but it seemed like everything was in order, and he handed it to Al, steeling himself for the pain that was sure to come. Don was watching from the kitchen.

"So you just connect it and that's it?" Don asked.

Ed turned and looked at Don from his place on the couch. "It's painful as hell, but yeah. That's pretty much it."

Don looked at Ed for a moment before getting up and retrieving Ed's painkillers from the bathroom and handing them to him. Ed glared at Don.

"You know, I can deal with a little pain."

"That's not how you've been acting," Don retorted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ed asked.

"Oh, I think you know exactly what it means, Ed," Don said. "Say, Al, wasn't it just the other night when-"

"That was different!" Ed interrupted, his face turning slightly red.

"Oh, I don't know, brother, that couldn't have hurt more than this," Al remarked. "But if you think you're brave enough…"

"Just do it, Al!" Ed failed to notice the look that passed between Al and Don as Al positioned the automail.

"Okay, then, brother," Al said.

"Oh, and by the way, you're going to a therapist tomorrow," Don added right as the arm connected.

"Wha- OW!" Al stepped back to give Ed some space as he recovered from the pain, and Don once again held out the bottle of painkillers. Ed glared at him as he tested his arm. Everything was in order, so he leaned back against the couch and breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he felt semi-normal again.

----------------

Ed didn't speak for a while after getting his arm back, and Don didn't push it. They ate dinner quietly, and sat around in the living room talking about random things. Don did his best to keep the atmosphere lighthearted, and Ed seemed to be humoring him, at the very least…

"So what's this about a therapist?" Ed asked after a while.

Don cringed on the inside. He'd been hoping that Ed wouldn't bring it up, but now that he had… "Due to the severity of this incident, Blake thinks you're in need of a psychiatric evaluation as well as psychotherapy."

Ed rolled his eyes. "You know, I was doing fine before he decided to mess with me."

"Yeah, I know, and I don't like him any more than you do, but he _is_ in charge at the moment, so I don't have a choice. Sorry." Ed seemed to be pouting, and Don sighed. "Hey, if it's any help at all, it's not Russo. It's someone I've worked with before, and he's not all that bad. Besides, you have bigger things to worry about at the moment."

Ed sighed. "Great…"

"Don't worry about it, it's only for an hour and a half, and he won't make you say anything if you don't want to."

Ed was quiet for a while before nodding. "Okay."

Don was relieved. He'd been worried about how Ed would react, but it seemed like Ed understood, at the very least. One less thing for him to worry about that night.

---------------

The next morning, Ed didn't wake up until 10:30. He yawned and looked around. Al was reading a book, and it sounded like Don was in the bathroom. Ed sat up, rubbing his eyes with his right hand.

"Oh, you're up," Al said, not looking up from his book. "That's good, Don said if you were still asleep when he got out that he'd have to dump a pot of coffee on your face."

Ed grunted and yawned once more. "What time is that session or whatever?"

"I think he said 11:30 or something."

"What about you?"

"I'm staying here," Al said as he turned the page of his book. "It's safe enough."

"I don't really want to go somewhere without you," Ed muttered.

"Brother, it'll be fine. You just need to relax more."

Ed flopped back down on the couch, his back to the room. "It's hard to relax when there's someone after us."

"Brother-"

"But I guess it'll work out, huh?" Ed interrupted. "I'll try to relax more, okay, Al?"

The door to the bathroom opened, and Don came out, dressed in casual clothing. Ed sat up and stifled another yawn as Don sat down next to him.

"You ready for today?" Don asked.

Ed grunted. Don accepted that as an answer and stood up. "Okay, then get cleaned up. We're leaving in half an hour."

Ed sighed and did as he was told, wearing lighter clothes because for once, the sun was out, and Ed wasn't really in the mood to get overheated. He had to move slowly because of his injuries, and by the time he was ready, it was time to leave. Ed said a quick goodbye to Al before they left the building and walked to Don's car.

--------------

Ed was absolutely silent as he sat in a comfortable chair in the psychiatrist's office. The man had told him not to speak unless he was comfortable with it, so Ed chose silence. He wasn't in the mood to tell this complete stranger his life story. It wasn't worth it.

After a while, Ed got irritated by the silence. "This is pointless," he muttered, more to himself than to the man in the other chair.

"Maybe it is," the man agreed. "But what you get out of this depends on what you put into it."

"Why do you care whether I say anything or not? You're getting paid either way."

"True, but that's not why I took this job."

Ed folded his arms over his chest and stared at his right hand. "I still don't see why I have to be here."

"Then do you think you're okay?"

"I've been through worse."

"I'm sure you have."

Ed sank down in his chair. "That guy's acting as if I've never been able to handle anything tough in my life."

"Then that's too bad for him. If this is as pointless as you say it is then that's his money wasted."

"Good." Ed turned his head so that he was staring out the window.

"You're upset that he made you relive the experience, aren't you?"

Ed blinked and turned to face the psychiatrist. "Well, of course I am. Wouldn't you be?"

"I probably would. But on the other hand, why does it bother you that much? You would have had to describe those events anyway, so isn't it better to just get it over with?"

Ed moved his gaze to the floor. "I guess…"

"But it's more than just the physical pain you experienced, isn't it?"

Ed nodded.

"Edward, do you blame yourself for what happened?"

The question caught Ed off guard. Yes, he blamed himself, but how couldn't he? Those women had died because… Ed shook his head. No, now wasn't the time to think about that.

"Edward?"

"I thought you said you weren't going to force me to say anything."

"I'm not. I was just asking a question." The doctor paused and looked straight into Ed's eyes. "Whether you answer it or not is up to you."

Ed heaved a sigh and went back to studying his automail. He'd never realized how interesting it looked before…

Several minutes passed in silence before Ed finally looked up. "I do."

"Why do you feel the need to blame yourself?"

"Why do you think? Those women died because of me! Because I was too stubborn to just let that guy do his stupid interrogation and get the hell out of our lives! And now…"

"You're afraid of what he might do to Winry."

Ed cringed. This guy was good…

"Don't worry. That guy's going to get at least fifty years in prison, at least if he doesn't get a life sentence."

"But Blake said that he might not…"

"Andrew _will_ have a trial. It's the law. The only way he'd get off is if there was barely any evidence against him or if the jury unanimously votes that he's innocent, and he'd have to get a whole lot of corrupt people for that. Blake was telling the truth, but he left out most of the facts, and while that was a good way to get you to tell him everything, it does leave the problem of you having to live with this fear."

"He's a jerk," Ed stated.

"He's definitely making himself look like a jerk," the psychiatrist agreed. "But just ask Agent Eppes if it's worrying you so much. He probably understands the judicial system about as well as Blake does."

Ed was quiet. A few minutes passed, and then the psychiatrist stood up. "Well, that's it for today. I'm going to talk to Don now."

Ed nodded, and followed the psychiatrist to the waiting room, where he sat until the adults finished talking.

-------------

Nyaaaaaaa. I'm not going to be updating for a very long time, sadly enough. I have to work a ton these next two weeks and then I'll be out of the country visiting my sister, and my cousin's getting married the week I come back, and then I have like a week or two to pack for college, and then I leave for that, and then I'll probably be busy the first few weeks, so…

But I'll try to update. I have a fifteen-hour plane ride, and if I'm not sleeping and my iPod dies during that time, then I'll write. Or I'll try to write.

But I promise I'll do something special before I leave, most likely finally getting my House/FMA crossover up on It's up elsewhere, but I really should put it up here…


	13. Chapter 13

"Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Don remarked as he drove through the city.

Ed shrugged. It had been a lot easier than he'd imagined, but it still wasn't something he wanted to do again, even if it had been somewhat helpful…

Just then, Don had something come through on his radio. Ed didn't listen, but it sounded like they were requesting his help. Don confirmed this when he turned unexpectedly onto a side street.

"I just got a call about a situation nearby. I'm going to help. This time, stay in the car, got it?"

Ed cringed a little out of embarrassment. "I will."

"If you don't then I'll switch back to Russo," Don warned.

Ed narrowed his eyes. "You wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

"Is that a challenge?"

Don rolled his eyes. "No. Just… stay in the car, okay?"

"I will. Sheesh."

Don parked the car next to some other police vehicles and made his way through to talk with the person in charge. Ed watched with vague curiosity, and jumped slightly when he heard a gunshot. Then the group ran forward into a building, and they didn't come out for several minutes. Ed waited for a while, his unease steadily increasing, but he breathed a sigh of relief when the group came out, having evidently caught whoever was causing the trouble. Don talked to the people for a while longer before getting back into the car.

"I have to go to work now, so I guess you're coming with me," Don said as he started the car.

"Okay," Ed replied. "Um…"

"Something wrong?"

Ed shook his head. "No, not really. I just realized I'm probably sixteen by now."

"Probably?"

Ed nodded. "Yeah, I don't really know how long it's been, but if I were back home…"

"You said your birthday's in the winter, right?"

Ed nodded.

"Well, it's summer here…"

"That's why it's so confusing," Ed said. "I don't know how much time has passed back home, so I can't really say I'm sixteen…"

"Then just stick with fifteen for now. It's not like it makes much of a difference here anyway."

Ed rolled his eyes. "I didn't think I'd hear something like that from you…"

"Hey, we already wrote down your birthday, so until that day passes here, you're fifteen."

"But that's like six months younger than I really am!"

"Hey, you should have thought about that when you told us your birthday."

"How was I supposed to know it'd be a problem now?"

"You're the one who's making it an issue, so you'll just have to live with it."

Ed sighed and folded his arms. "Whatever."

-----------------

Ed was sitting in the waiting room once again, and the bored look had returned to his face. Terry glanced at him on occasion through the glass that separated the room she was in from the one Ed was sitting in. Part of her wanted to go over and give the kid something more interesting to do than sit around and watch people go by, but then again, she was also in the room with Blake, and she didn't feel like getting taken off the case as well. It was already hard enough without Don's help.

"Is he always that quiet?" Blake asked after a while.

"Most of the time," Terry replied, not looking up from the report she was currently reading. She had discussed this earlier with her coworkers. They wouldn't talk about Ed unless they were directly asked about him. Don had the feeling that Blake had heard rumors about Ed's abilities as an alchemist, and Terry had the feeling he was right. They had to be careful if they wanted to keep the truth about Ed a secret.

"He was involved with that bombing on the twelfth, right?"

"That's what it says in the report."

"It's pretty vague. How did he manage to blow a hole in the floor without planning ahead?"

"I don't know. We were too far away to see what he was doing, and he hasn't said a word about it." Well, it was sort of true…

"You didn't ask him?"

"He refuses to talk about it, but since he couldn't have done anything illegal and he prevented at least ten deaths, we decided not to push it. Do you think he was involved with the planning?"

"I'm just trying to figure this kid out. People who show up out of nowhere tend to cause trouble, whether they mean to or not."

He did have a point… Terry handed Blake the report she had just finished reading. "Looks like this one's legit. Someone saw our suspect in a park on the other side of L.A."

"How long ago?"

"A few hours ago, but according to our witness, it looked like the suspect planned on staying there for a while."

Blake stood up and took one last look at Ed before turning back to Terry. "Send a team out. Go quietly, and see if you can catch this guy off guard if he's still there. If he has an unknown weapon we don't want him to get a chance to use it."

Terry nodded and grabbed a few things before leaving to carry out the order. When she passed by Ed, she gave him a reassuring smile. Ed seemed to get the message, and he returned the smile, his eyes filled with hope.

One more thing she'd thought she'd never see.

--------------

The light-haired man was indeed at the park when Terry and David arrived. Strangely enough, he was asleep under a bridge. There was blood spattered on his clothing, and when Terry got the chance to inspect it more closely, she saw that it was fresh. This man had killed someone recently, most likely just before he had arrived in the park.

As soon as they had him in cuffs and in a vehicle under a semi-heavy guard, Terry walked up to the man and asked him where his latest victim was. The man laughed.

"Somewhere around here. I forget where exactly."

Terry gave the orders for the other agents to look for the body before getting in the car and driving to the station with David. They were hoping they could interrogate the suspect about alchemy before giving him to Blake for further questioning. That was when Terry realized something.

Double-checking to make sure the light-haired man, who called himself Jim, wasn't listening to them, Terry voiced her suspicions. "This is it."

"What?"

"Blake's going to find out about alchemy. This guy doesn't seem to care about secrecy now that he's been caught. He'll admit to using alchemy and if Blake asks about Ed…"

David kept his eyes on the road. "You're right. And if Blake finds out about Ed…"

"Then the Elric brothers will probably disappear very, very soon."

"No, they won't," came a voice from the back. The light-haired man _had_ been listening.

Terry turned in her seat to face the man. "Excuse me?"

The man shrugged. "I know from experience not to mention alchemy in this world. That pipsqueak's secret is safe with me."

"Is it really, now?" Terry asked, suspicion evident in her voice.

"Even if it isn't, you couldn't do much about it, could you?"

Terry didn't answer that question. Jim was right, but she didn't want to acknowledge it. She just hoped that the killer was telling the truth.

-------------

It was quiet in the living room of the Eppes home. Almost unnaturally quiet. Both Ed and Charlie were waiting for Don to get off the phone with someone, and considering the day's events, Ed had a pretty good idea who it was. Finally, Don came back into the room and sat down on the couch with a sigh.

"That was Blake. He's taking both Jim and Andrew to a 'classified location for further questioning' tomorrow."

Ed was almost afraid to ask, but somehow he managed to get the words out. "What about me and Al?"

"You're going to the same place the day after tomorrow."

Ed frowned. He realized that this was coming, but he had hoped that somehow…

"And there's no way out of this?"

"No. I checked everything I could think of. I guess you'll just have to hope that Blake doesn't know what you're capable of and gives up on you two. Then you'd probably be sent to a foster home until you're eighteen."

"Unless I find a way back before then."

Charlie looked intrigued at Ed's statement. "Think you can?"

"Maybe not on my own, but…"

Don sighed. "Blake's never going to leave you alone in a room with either of those guys. You can't get help from them."

Ed was quiet for a while. He had to think of something…

"And don't even think of doing anything that could get you in trouble," Don said.

Ed gave a resigned sigh. "Fine…"

The look on Don's face made Ed wish the situation was different, because it was priceless. "You were actually thinking of doing something illegal, weren't you?"

"N-no, of course not!" Ed stammered, realizing that he wasn't being very convincing.

"Ed…"

"Don't worry, I didn't even come up with something that would work," Ed interrupted bitterly.

It was quiet for a while before Charlie spoke up. "So, I'm guessing that those two are getting life sentences?"

"Yep," Don replied.

"So no matter what they do, they can't get any worse than that, right?"

"Where are you going with this?" Ed asked.

Ignoring Ed completely, Charlie turned to Don. "You should talk to them again. They're probably past caring about the consequences of their actions anyway."

"Just what…" Ed trailed off when both Don and Charlie looked over at him with the same look in their eyes. "Oh…"

Don stood up. "Well, I think it's time for us to head back. I'm going to have to get up early tomorrow."

--------------

When Ed got out of Don's car, he went over the basic facts again. Don had talked to the killers early that morning. The two had been sent out in the afternoon. Ed and Al would be taken away the next day.

Don had said that Jim had agreed to trying to cause some commotion in order to get the four of them in the same place to get back to Amestris, but Ed didn't know if they'd be able to do anything. They only had a day…

"What we need is something to delay your trip," Don said as they walked up the stairs. "And once again, I can't believe I managed to convince myself to do this."

"Sometimes you have to break the rules to do the right thing," Ed muttered. "If anyone back home believes me when I tell them I got stuck in some alternate universe, I'm sure you'll end up being a hero."

"What, for getting you back there? Sounds like you've got a big ego there."

Ed shook his head. "It's not that. There's just something happening that me and some other people are trying to stop, and if we don't, then something bad is going to happen."

Don stopped in the middle of unlocking the door to look at Ed. "You never mentioned that before."

"Nope. Actually, I shouldn't have said anything at all…"

"Why not?"

Ed shook his head. "It's complicated." Hopefully Don wouldn't push the issue…

"Whatever you say," Don said as he finally opened the door.

They sat around for about half an hour before Ed got an idea. He thought about it for a while, trying to figure out the best way to go about it without causing too much trouble for everyone who wasn't on Blake's side. Finally, he figured it out, and he went to sleep that night with everything worked out in his mind. He just hoped that he wouldn't go too far…

---------------

Yay, one last chapter before I leave for my trip. You should feel loved.

And is it just me, or do I set my standards way too high? Because this chapter doesn't seem all that great to me, but you might disagree, since that's what usually happens…


	14. Chapter 14

THE END IS HERE OH NOES!

Uhm, yeah, this might seem a little rushed, but there wasn't really anything else I wanted to add to this, so yeah…

---------------

Ed barely said anything when it was time for him to leave. There was no need. He'd already said everything he'd needed to say, and now all he could do was quietly follow Blake out to a car.

Before they left the building, Blake looked down at Ed. "Need to use the bathroom before we leave?"

Ed blinked. Here was his chance… "Ah, yeah."

Blake nodded to his coworkers and led Ed through the building to the restrooms. He stood just outside the door, giving Ed even more of a chance to carry out his plan. Once Ed was sure he was alone, he transmuted part of his automail leg into a separate blade. He paused and waited for a few minutes.

"Okay, here goes," Ed muttered to himself before taking a deep breath.

_First thing's first, look as sad and pathetic as you can,_ Ed thought to himself. He looked at the sink for a minute, considering splashing water on his face to fake tears. _No, it would be better if they're real tears. I just need to get myself to cry…_ Ed thought about the past week and sighed. _Well, this isn't going to be hard…_

He looked back at the door and slumped to the floor. He picked up the blade in his right hand, but it slipped and fell to the floor. Ed swore and picked it up with his left hand. He looked at it for a while, concentrating on making himself cry. It was beginning to work.

_Maybe I should try something else,_ Ed thought. He looked at the door again and looked back down at the blade. _No, nothing else will work._

He stared at the blade for a while longer before bringing it up to his neck. He wondered if he should actually cut through the skin. It would probably give him even more time, but then he'd be watched more carefully.

He heard voices on the other side of the door and felt a pit of dread in his stomach. If someone didn't come in soon he might lose his nerve…

-----------------

Don paused when he saw Blake standing outside the bathroom door. When Blake saw him, he pointed to the door. "Just waiting for someone."

"I'm surprised you trust him on his own," Don replied.

"Would you?"

Don gave a rueful smile. "Nope."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "Really? He didn't seem that impulsive to me."

"Oh, he is. Didn't I mention that?"

Blake sighed. "It's been five minutes already. I'm thinking you're right." He opened the door to the bathroom and stopped dead in his tracks. Don's reaction was about the same.

Ed was sitting on the floor against the far wall, holding some sort of knife in his left hand. He was holding it up to his neck, and Don could tell it had pierced the skin.

"What are you doing?" Blake asked, anger and fear evident in his voice. Don noted that fear was predominant.

Ed didn't move. He seemed so ready to take his own life that Don thought frantically about a way to get him to stop as Ed spoke. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Ed, why are you doing this?" Don asked from the doorway. He wanted to get help, but he had the feeling Ed wouldn't give him a chance, so he stayed. Ed hadn't done anything sudden since being caught in the middle of his suicide attempt, so he was probably having doubts…

Ed lowered his gaze, but kept the knife in his hand. Don heard footsteps in the hallway, but they stopped just before the bathroom door. Don glanced back and saw another agent from Blake's group standing in the hall. The agent pulled out something that Don recognized as a tranquilizer gun (or whatever they're called) and carefully took aim.

Don looked back at Ed. The alchemist was still holding the knife in position, but his eyes were closed. He began lowering the knife. Don was about to approach him when Ed suddenly raised the weapon up again, aiming it for his throat.

Just before it hit its target, however, the knife fell from Ed's hand. Ed looked up at Don in confusion for a moment before collapsing on the ground. Don could see a tranquilizer dart sticking out of Ed's leg.

Don kneeled down next to Ed and checked the cut on his neck. It wasn't deep, and Don stepped back to let someone else bandage it. Blake stood next to Don and watched Ed carefully for a moment.

"So much for him being mentally stable," Blake muttered as Ed was removed from the room.

"What are you going to do about it?" Don asked.

"He needs help. I'm putting him in a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation." Blake sighed. "I guess I'll have to wait to bring him back home."

Don mentally breathed a sigh of relief. Now that they had more time, there was a better chance of Ed making it back to his own world. As they left the bathroom, Don couldn't help but think that it was staged. He allowed himself to smile a little. Ed was definitely smarter than he appeared.

That is, if Ed really _was_ faking it…

----------------

Al sat quietly next to his brother's bed, waiting for the sedatives to wear off. At the moment, Ed's limbs were restrained, and there was only a small bandage on his throat. Al wished his brother would wake up. There were so many questions he had, the most important of which was why? Why did Ed want to end his life? Al gently placed a hand on his brother's arm.

After a while, Ed opened his eyes and looked around the room before closing them again. There were a couple of people in the room to see how things were going, but Al was the only one to notice. He waited until the others left the room to talk to Ed.

"Brother…"

Ed looked over at Al and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry if I scared you, Al."

"Why did you do this?"

Ed sighed. "I don't know." He looked up at Al again and gave him a meaningful look.

Al understood immediately. "I guess it'll be a while before we go with Blake now, huh?"

"I hope so," Ed muttered.

"But… brother, your neck…"

Ed glanced around the room before whispering, "That was an accident, Al. Blake startled me when he opened the door and I moved a little too suddenly."

"Everyone's worried about you, brother. Couldn't you have-" Al heard the door open and cut himself off. He turned to look at whoever opened it. A doctor was standing in the doorway, accompanied by a nurse. They walked up to the bed.

"Excuse me, Alphonse, but I need to be alone with your brother for a moment."

Al nodded and stood up. "I'll see you later, brother."

He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving his brother alone with the ones who would determine just how long they could avoid being in Blake's clutches.

-----------------

Ed fidgeted as the nurse adjusted his bed into an upright position. He wanted his hands free, but he had the feeling they wouldn't let that happen. He sighed and looked expectantly at the doctor.

"How are you feeling today, Edward?" the doctor asked.

"Okay, I guess…"

"Do you know why I'm here?"

Ed nodded but didn't speak.

"Then I suppose we should get down to business. Why did you try to kill yourself?"

Ed averted his gaze and looked down. "I don't know."

"Is it because of what happened to you?"

Ed was quiet for a minute before speaking. "No. Well, maybe, but that's not really why…"

"Then what's your reason?"

Ed leaned his head back against the pillow. "I want to go home."

"You don't want to go with Blake?"

Ed shook his head. "I don't trust him."

"So you thought that suicide would be a better alternative?"

"I…" Ed shook his head. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"That's understandable. You've had a rough time."

Ed looked at his hand. He hated not being able to move…

"Edward?"

Ed looked up when he heard his name. "What?"

"I'm just going to ask you a few more questions and then I'll let your brother back in when it's time for dinner, okay?"

Ed nodded. All he had to do now was fake his way through this…

--------------------

When Al was finally let back into the room, Ed did not look happy. He was staring pointedly out the window, and he looked as if he'd kill someone if he weren't restrained.

"Um, brother…?"

"What is it, Al?"

"What happened?"

Ed turned his head and scowled at Al. "That bastard said I was depressed. They're putting me on drugs, Al!"

"They have a drug that can make you not feel depressed?" Al asked curiously.

"Apparently," Ed replied. "And I get to take it. Lucky me."

"Come on, brother, it might not be so bad…"

"Really, Al? I'm not even depressed! What if it messes with my body?"

"Brother…"

Ed narrowed his eyes. "What, do you think I need it?"

"Actually, I think it's a good idea. Ever since…"

"I get it, Al." Ed sighed. "Oh well, at least…" Ed paused and looked at Al. "Well, you know."

Al nodded. "Yeah."

Just then, a nurse entered the room with Ed's dinner. Once she was gone, Al began feeding his brother.

"This sucks," Ed muttered.

"At least they're letting me do this," Al replied. "I'm used to having to do this anyway."

"Shut up, Al," Ed snapped, just as the door opened and Blake entered the room. Blake walked up to Ed's bed and sat on a stool next to him.

"Hey, I'm sorry about this," Blake said, in a tone that didn't quite convince Ed he was telling the truth. "I didn't mean to push you over the edge like that."

Ed simply glared at Blake in response. Blake sighed and stood up.

"Okay, I get it. Listen, you're going to be here for a couple more days, just until they make sure you'll be okay. Then we're going."

Ed turned his head so that he didn't have to face Blake. "Whatever."

Once Blake left, Ed closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, I think a couple of days should be enough time, right, Al?"

Al nodded and went back to feeding his brother.

-----------------

Sadly, the next few days passed more quickly than Ed would have liked, and he found himself saying goodbye to Don once again before getting into the van. He stared straight ahead as the car started, thinking about Don's last words.

"_Everything's going to work out, okay?"_

They had decided earlier that those would be the code for 'everything's all set so you won't be stuck with Blake anymore and you can get back to your own world,' so Ed was somewhat hopeful as they drove off, Blake sitting in the seat across from him.

"How far is it?" Ed asked.

"A few hours. I have some questions for you, though, so that should help pass the time."

Ed sighed and slumped in his seat. "Whatever."

"First off, I'd like to know more about that incident with the terrorist."

Ed tensed momentarily before realizing Blake was probably expecting that reaction. He tried to relax as he replied. "What about it?"

"I think you know what I want you to tell me."

Ed shook his head. "Nope. You have to be specific."

"Fine, have it your way. How did you blow a hole in the floor with absolutely no weapons on hand?"

Ed was quiet for a while, trying to think of a plausible answer. When he could come up with none, he simply remained silent.

"I'm waiting for an answer."

_Yeah, well you can just keep on waiting, jackass,_ Ed thought. He wished Al was in the car with him, but Al was in another vehicle, leaving Ed alone with Blake.

"Okay, then how about I answer the question for you?"

Ed cringed inwardly. Here it was…

"You can do something the rest of us can't, isn't that right?"

Ed was quiet. So this _would_ end up being the way Ed thought it would be…

"No need to hide it anymore. I figured it out a long time ago."

"Then why bother asking?" Ed muttered.

"Because you're going to help me with something. Something important."

"Like what?"

"There's a war going on. We need as much help as we can to end it."

Ed scowled. "You want me to fight."

"No. You're too valuable for that. You'll just teach us what you know. It shouldn't be too hard, right?"

Ed glared at Blake. "Hell no. There's no way I'll let you use it like that."

Blake frowned. "We're trying to _end_ the war, not make it worse."

"I don't care. I've seen what having that kind of power does to people. Besides, don't you people have enough weapons as it is?"

Blake stood up and grabbed Ed by the shirt, pulling Ed off his seat a little as his eyes flashed dangerously.

"Listen, I've been nicer than I have to be with you, and we're very desperate at the moment. If you don't help us out then we won't help you out. You'll just have to sit and wait for your life to go by in a very secluded area. If you help us, at least you'll have some freedom."

"No. I'm not going to help you."

"Do you want to see your brother again?"

Ed blinked. This was a new development…

"Do you?"

"You're using him against me?" Ed growled. "Do you think that's the best idea?"

Blake slammed Ed against the back of the seat. "Don't try me, kid. Right now, we have control over your very existence. We have the original copies of any records you have, and it's obvious you aren't going to see your friends back in LA again."

Ed felt himself fill with rage. Blake was now on the same level as everyone else who had tried to take advantage of him, and that pissed him off. He tried to punch Blake with his right hand, but Blake caught his fist and grabbed Ed's other arm as well before pushing him down to the seat.

"Like I said, don't try me." Blake pulled a syringe from his pocket, holding Ed's left arm down with a knee as he pulled off the protective cap with his teeth. "I'll put you to sleep if I have to."

Ed continued to struggle, but his painkillers were wearing off and his body was aching. Blake stuck the syringe in his arm and pushed Ed's chin up with his hand.

"You're going to regret ever messing with me, kid."

Ed was about to reply when the van screeched and rolled. Luckily, the sedative had relaxed Ed's body enough that he wasn't injured. Blake was similarly lucky, and the last thing Ed saw before he lost consciousness was the man forcing the back doors open, just before something exploded.

-----------------

"And that's it, huh?" Terry asked as she gave the report back to Don.

"Yep."

"You going to miss them?"

"Probably. They were definitely different from anyone else I've met."

"I think just about everyone here can say that."

Don nodded. "Anyway, there's nothing else we can do about it. Blake's got it all under control."

"Yep. I'm just glad nobody was seriously injured."

"Except for those four, you mean."

Terry shrugged. "Right."

Don stood up, and the two of them went to get some lunch, leaving the report on Don's desk:

'_Andrew' and 'Jim,' the killers responsible for the murders of thirteen women and the attempted murders of three others broke free from the vehicle that had been detaining them. They intercepted the vehicles carrying two boys who went by the surname of Elric, who happened to be two of the three victims of attempted murder, and an explosion took the lives of the four. Those four were the only casualties in the incident._

_Their bodies were not found. It is assumed that their bodies were completely burned by the flames resulting from the explosion._

----------------

"Hey. Hey, are you okay?"

Ed slowly opened his eyes to see a worried face above his. He tried to move, and found that his body was indeed responding the way it should. He sat up and began observing his surroundings.

Everywhere around him were soldiers wearing the Amestrian uniform, including the man who sat next to him. There was a train about fifty yards away from where he sat. Al was talking to someone nearby.

"Ugh… what happened?" Ed asked, more to himself than anyone else.

"Sir, you've been missing for about two months, ever since you were kidnapped…"

The soldier pointed at something nearby, and Ed saw that Jim was sitting in a military vehicle, under a very heavy guard. Only one…

"What about… there were two of them…"

"The other one is dead. We found his body near yours."

Ed rubbed his head. "Then…"

"Sir, what did they do to you?"

Ed lowered his gaze. "They…" Just then, Al came walking up with Colonel Mustang. Ed breathed a sigh of relief as the other soldier saluted and left. Roy held out a hand to Ed and helped him to his feet.

"It's good to see you alive, Fullmetal. Come on, I have a hotel room ready."

----------------

After he had showered and gotten some food, Ed was ready to talk to Roy. Al had tried to explain what had happened without talking about the other world they had been in, but it was impossible, so Roy had gotten to listen to a very interesting story. Thankfully, since Ed still had had the small tracking device in his watch, Roy had believed Al, but now Ed had to go into detail about what had happened to him. He wasn't looking forward to it.

He lay facing the wall on his bed, waiting for Roy to enter the room. Al was sitting on the other bed, his hands in his lap. The room was quiet until the door opened.

"Interesting," Roy said as he stood in the doorway.

"What?" Ed asked, not moving an inch.

"Nothing." Roy sat down on the bed next to Al. "How are you feeling?"

Ed grunted. He felt that was a sufficient answer, and Roy didn't push it. It was quiet in the room for a while, and eventually Ed rolled over and sat up.

"Are you ready to tell me what happened?" Roy asked.

"I guess," Ed replied. He took a deep breath and began explaining the events to Roy. Roy listened quietly, occasionally asking Ed a question to clear up a confusing detail, and when Ed finished, Roy was quiet for a while, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Is something wrong?" Ed asked nervously.

"No, no. I was just thinking that it would be nice if I could thank those people for watching out for you. It wouldn't have been good if you hadn't been around to help us."

Ed sighed. "I just hope I don't have to face Winry for a while…"

"Brother…"

Roy held up a hand. "Alphonse, would you mind letting me talk to your brother alone?"

Al nodded and left the room. Once he was gone, Roy looked straight into Ed's eyes. Ed looked away after a moment and lay back down on the bed, his back to Roy.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to deal with what happened," he muttered. "Even though I know it's not my fault, it still feels like it is."

"That's natural," Roy said. "I still feel the same way about not being able to stop you two back then."

Ed turned to look at Roy. "You do?"

Roy nodded. "I do."

"How do you deal with it?"

"By helping you achieve your goals."

Ed went back to facing the wall. "It's different, though."

"Because innocent people died?"

Ed cringed. "Yeah."

"Do you realize how many innocent lives I've ended?"

"What are you trying to say?" Ed asked, letting his anger come through in his voice.

"I'm saying I can understand how you feel. I know how hard it must be for you right now."

"Oh."

Ed felt a hand on his shoulder. "There's not much you can do about it. You have to live with it."

"But what about Winry?"

"You don't have to tell her unless you think she needs to know. Besides, by the time you see her again, you'll be able to face her without breaking down. I know you will."

Ed closed his eyes. "I hope you're right."

Roy let out a nervous laugh. "Me too." His hand left Ed's arm for a moment before Ed felt a blanket cover his body. "Anyway, get some rest. You deserve at least a small break before going north."

"What are you going to do now?"

"I have some business to take care of involving this case. Normally it's something I'd have you take care of, but I think we can make an exception this time."

"Thank you…" Ed would have said more, but he was asleep. Roy smiled and walked silently out of the room.

---------------

"Charlie? Something wrong?"

Charlie blinked and looked over at his brother. They were walking down a street toward a restaurant, and for the past few minutes, Charlie had been spacing out. He shook his head, trying to get his mind back to what they were doing. "Nah."

"You're thinking about Ed, aren't you?" Don looked pensive for a moment. "He's probably doing something with the military at the moment."

"If he made it back."

"You don't think he did?"

"I can't think of any way he could have made it to another world just like that."

Don shrugged. "Maybe it's something we'll never understand. Could you deal with that?"

"It'll be hard, but I think I can do it." Charlie stopped walking when he saw that Don had stopped to pick something up off the ground. Don straightened, and they continued.

"Either way, I think I learned a few things from him," Don said as they entered the restaurant. They got a table and sat down. Don pulled an envelope from his pocket and opened it.

"What's that?"

"I don't know," Don replied. "I wouldn't have picked it up, but it had my name on it."

"Your name?"

"Yep." Don pulled out the contents of the envelope and placed them on the table. There wasn't much, just a letter and a photograph. Don picked up the photo and looked at it for a moment before smiling.

"What is it?"

Don handed the photo to Charlie before picking up the letter. It showed a small group of people standing in front of a monstrous building. Charlie could see flags that had a design similar to the one he'd seen on Ed's watch. Ed himself was standing at the front of the group. He was the only one who didn't look like he wanted to be there. He was also the only one not wearing a uniform.

There were four others in the picture: a blonde man with a cigarette sticking out of his mouth, a blonde woman with a polite smile on her face, and a black-haired man with serious eyes.

"Where'd this come from?" Charlie asked, not quite believing what he was seeing.

"I don't know. It just appeared out of nowhere." Don shook his head and handed Charlie the letter. "But I think I _know_ who it came from."

Charlie read the letter and laughed. "Man, this is… It's unbelievable. I guess we really can't doubt him anymore, huh?"

"Not necessarily. Ever hear of Photoshop?"

"Oh, come on. Ed can't even turn on a computer, much less make something like this…"

"But what about one of the other guys?"

"You're just in denial. Maybe you should stop trying to think so logically."

Don stared at Charlie. "…You just told me not to use logic."

Charlie sat back in his chair and gave Don a smug look. "Yep. Try to make sense out of _that._"

The two continued to argue until Charlie noticed that there was writing on the back of the picture. The ink was faded, but he could still make out what it said.

_Colonel Roy Mustang, First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc, and Major Edward Elric, a.k.a. shrimp._

_1913, East City Headquarters._

"Colonel Roy Mustang…" Charlie looked back at the letter and read it again.

_To Don Eppes:_

_I'd like to thank you for looking after my subordinate and believing him even though what he said was probably the most outrageous story you've ever heard. Edward and his brother are fine, and if by some freak chance you or your brother ever end up in Amestris, I'll try to return the favor._

_I'd also like to apologize for any trouble he gave you. He tends to be a moron most of the time, but he does have his moments. He also mentioned that he felt bad for his fake attempt at suicide, and if he ever sees you again, I'm sure he'll apologize for it._

_Thanks once again,_

_Col. Roy Mustang, Flame Alchemist_

----------------

NO I DON'T WANT IT TO BE OVER!!! Oh well, I'll be doing a bunch of random extra chapters in a story thingy I'll post someday, entitled "Random extra chapters that don't really fit into my stories but that I want to write anyway" or something along those lines.

Anyway, hope ya enjoyed it! waves

Oh, and I'm going to be out of the country for the next three weeks, so don't expect updates on any of my stories, with the possible exception of the House/FMA fic that's finally up.


	15. OMG

I'M MAKING A SEQUEL!

Yeah, just got a spur-of-the-moment idea for a sequel, so I'm going for it. It'll be a while before it comes out, since, you know, I suck at updating and I've been breandead for the past few weeks when it comes to writing, but I thought I'd let you all know. ;D


	16. Chapter 16

One day Ed decided he wanted some cheesecake

One day Ed decided he wanted some cheesecake. He went to the store and bought some, and sat in his prison cell in Briggs and ate it.

Meanwhile, Don and Charlie were eating cheesecake in LA. Their dad ate some cheesecake too.

Then, suddenly, Don and Ed suddenly switch places, and things got really weird. Don got pregnant and Ed and Charlie found the cure for cancer.

Then Ed woke up in Briggs and realized that it had all been a dream. That is, until Don's baby threw cheesecake at Ed's face.

The end.

Author's note: Finally, I have given you the cheesecake I promised you. Plz don't kill me.


End file.
